Common-law

Legal system distinct from civil and canon law

Roman law ideas regained importance in common-law legal scholarship with the revival of academic law schools in the 19th century. As a result, today, the main systematic divisions of the law into property, contract, and tort (and to some extent unjust enrichment) can be found in the civil law as well as in the common law. Common law countries are increasingly adopting codes, similar to civil law systems, in areas such as bankruptcy, intellectual property, antitrust, banking regulation, securities, and tax law. One of the most significant attempts at condification in the common-law tradition was the creation of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) in the United States, led by the American Law Institute and Uniform Law Commission, and which has now been enacted, with some local variations, in the majority of state and territorial jurisdictions in the US, including the District of Columbia.