Common Law and Civil Law

These terms are used to distinguish two distinct legal systems and approaches to law. The use of the term common law in this context refers to all those legal systems which have adopted the historical english legal system. Foremost among these is of course the USA. the english jurist and first vinerian professor of english law at oxford, sir william blackstone produced a comprehensive treatise on the common law called commentaries on the laws of England, first published in four volumes in 1756 to 1759. Courts in the US often quote blackstone's commentaries as the definitive source of common law. The writers of the US constitution were readers of blackstone and used same terms and phrases