The Common Law Part I: What is Common Law and What Role Did it Play in England? [No. 86]

What is the Common Law? Where did it come from and why was it important?

Professor Kurt Lash discusses the origins of the English Common Law tradition and how it was brought to America by the colonists. Professor Lash explains how the Common Law worked and what it represented in the Parliamentary system. When the Founders decided on a new form of constitutional government, conceptions about the Common Law in America had to be reassessed.

Professor Kurt T. Lash holds the E. Claiborne Robins Distinguished Chair in Law at the University of Richmond School of Law. He is the Founder and Director of the Richmond Program on the American Constitution.

As always, the Federalist Society takes no position on particular legal or public policy issues; all expressions of opinion are those of the speaker.

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   • Constitutional Law [Course] [No. 86]