The Death of the Common Law

Our legal system is known as a common law system. Judicial opinions establish the law entirely on some issues and provide necessary development of the law on other issues, publishing the results to serve as precedents for future disputes. Later cases must follow these precedents unless the prior cases can be distinguished or their legal authority overruled.

However, in the mid-1970s, the United States’ judiciary abandoned these common law principles by issuing unpublished, non-precedential opinions.  The production of these unpublished opinions has expanded ever since. Courts that issue them make law good only for that single time and place–the very antithesis of the common law.  

This talk will examine the judiciary’s unpublished opinion practices, the legal community’s response, and whether we are witnessing the death of the common law in the United States.