Private Law Theory

Introduction:
… This Article sets out a theoretical and normative theory of “local common law”, supported by on-the-ground stories. Local common law is the town, city, and county counterpart to state common law. Like state common law, local common law is judge-made, extended to the limits of, but not beyond, a single jurisdiction, and has a legal effect. But state and local common law differ in meaningful ways, such as in geographic scope and source of authority. Today’s local common law is substantive, covering tort, landlord-tenant, mental health, family, and criminal law. Local common law is also procedural, providing rules for issuing protective orders, statutes of limitation, methods of collecting traffic fines in city courts, the validity of using pre-sentence investigation reports, whether motions and trials are split, class certification procedures, and more … (more)

Annie Decker, A THEORY OF LOCAL COMMON LAW. Cardozo Law Review, Vol 35:1939 (2014).

First posted 2014-06-19 12:52:52