Samuel L. Bray

Online
Essay
The Concept of the Common Law
Samuel L. Bray
Professor Samuel Bray is a Professor of Law at the University of Chicago Law School. He thanks Will Baude, Richard Re, and an anonymous reviewer for incisive comments.

The common law is, among other things, a mode of legal development. In this mode, judges develop the law yet simultaneously act as if they were only discovering law that already existed. This sketch of the common law introduces contemporary readers to a way of thinking and talking about law that was once instinctive for judges. The common law as a mode of development may seem alien at certain points, yet its influence on the legal systems of the United States has been enormous, and it is critical background for understanding the grant of “the judicial power” in the U.S. Constitution.

Constitutional Law Jurisprudence
2
Article
77.3
Preventive Adjudication
Samuel L. Bray
Executive Director, Stanford Constitutional Law Center, Stanford Law School

Thanks for helpful comments to Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Will Baude, Noa Ben-Asher, Brett Dakin, Elizabeth Emens, Robert Ferguson, Chad Flanders, Abbe Gluck, Jamal Greene, Adam Gustafson, Ranjit Hakim, Philip Hamburger, Joseph Landau, Jennifer Laurin, Henry Monaghan, Jessica Roberts, Bertrall Ross, Elizabeth Schneider, Henry Smith, James Stewart, Tracy Thomas, Andrew Varcoe, and workshop participants at Columbia Law School.

Courts Judicial Decision-Making Law and Economics

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