How to Use common-law in a Sentence

common-law

1 of 2 adjective
  • Where there is no common-law duty, there is no common-law liability.
    — Virginia Hammerle, Dallas Morning News, 15 Mar. 2026
  • But British authorities had removed customs and revenue cases from the ordinary common-law courts.
    — Joseph Thorndike, Forbes.com, 29 June 2026
  • The Texas Supreme Court reiterated that no statutory or common-law duty to disclose existed.
    — Virginia Hammerle, Dallas Morning News, 15 Mar. 2026
  • The suits are brought under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, federal anti-sex trafficking statutes, and common-law tort claims under New York law.
    — Chase Jordan october 17, Charlotte Observer, 17 Oct. 2025
  • The arrests of Peter Mandelson and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor have shone a spotlight on the centuries-old common-law offence of misconduct in public office.
    — The Week Uk, TheWeek, 25 Feb. 2026
  • Legal experts in Britain say the law used to arrest Mountbatten-Windsor is a catchall common-law offense, centuries old, that has been used to prosecute all manner of serious abuses of official power when no modern statute fits neatly.
    — Josh Meyer, USA Today, 20 Feb. 2026
  • However, Laura’s common-law husband Dustin Herring picked her up from community supervision in Fort Worth and took her to a motel, according to an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by CBS Texas.
    — Shambhavi Rimal, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 13 Apr. 2026
  • Chernyak, who came to the US last August, was arrested in January and charged with battery with bodily harm over what his common-law wife Oksana Tarasiuk told CNN was a misunderstanding exacerbated by a language barrier with police officers.
    — Isabelle Chapman, CNN Money, 8 Sep. 2025

common law

2 of 2 noun
  • These are common law claims that state courts are used to hearing.
    — Aurora Almendral, Quartz, 26 Apr. 2023
  • No one has done more to help us to keep our faith in the living force and beauty of the common law.
    — Travis Andersen, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Mar. 2018
  • Indeed, they are found almost nowhere else in either statutes or the common law.
    — Dan McLaughlin, National Review, 21 June 2021
  • Each of the thousands of common law rules that exist today once did not exist.
    — Daniella Silva, NBC News, 28 Dec. 2017
  • The case centered on two common laws that can be used to sue the lovers of unfaithful spouses.
    — Bruce Henderson, charlotteobserver, 6 Sep. 2017
  • The grand jury process, meanwhile, was adopted from British common law.
    — Maya Wiley, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Donovan Davis, 25, has been charged with three counts of common law robbery.
    — Jane Wester, charlotteobserver, 18 Jan. 2018
  • The Restatements are, in essence, guidebooks to the common law.
    — Ian MacDougall, ProPublica, 20 May 2019
  • Every state has some form of citizen’s arrest law, either on the books or common law.
    — Roy S. Johnson | [email protected], al, 18 May 2020
  • This comes from the common law and from a type of model law called the Uniform Trust Code.
    — Dallas News, 20 Sep. 2020
  • The judge in Hart’s case has yet to rule on the common law immunity argument.
    — Shelly Bradbury, The Denver Post, 12 Nov. 2024
  • Khater and Tanios are named as defendants for one claim of common law assault, the filing states.
    — Clarence Williams, Washington Post, 6 Jan. 2023
  • Surely there is such case law in the form of the common law of joint and several liability.
    — Michael I. Krauss, Forbes, 18 May 2022
  • But the common law is just the procedural mechanism by which these views became and remained law.
    — New York Times, 19 May 2022
  • To attract business and workers, the city has a tax-free zone that uses common law for corporate dealings.
    — Frank Holmes, Forbes, 19 Oct. 2021
  • Many civil law countries do not recognize trusts in the same way common law jurisdictions do.
    — Virginia La Torre Jeker, Forbes.com, 26 May 2026
  • In the other, common law states, a spouse usually has a right to claim one third to one half of the estate, regardless of what a will says.
    — Nerd Wallet, oregonlive, 8 Nov. 2021
  • That is the same function as actual courts in common law systems such as America’s.
    — Aron Solomon, Fortune, 13 May 2021
  • Another 10 states have imposed a duty to warn under common law.
    — Virginia Hammerle, Dallas Morning News, 15 Mar. 2026
  • The lawsuit makes claims including breach of contract and a denial of a common law right of peaceful interment.
    — Ronn Blitzer, Fox News, 28 July 2022
  • State law and case precedent, often referred to as common law, provide trademark protection for marks used in commerce.
    — Michael McCann, Sportico.com, 18 Feb. 2026
  • Ronnie Stevens and his common law wife Tina Ephrem face a six-count federal fraud indictment.
    — oregonlive.com, 10 July 2019
  • Wang said birthright citizenship came from English common law that didn’t require parents to be domiciled.
    — Maureen Groppe, USA Today, 1 Apr. 2026
  • Under the common law, Google, as a common carrier, has a duty to provide this service in a straight-up manner.
    — Charles M. Miller, National Review, 8 Oct. 2021
  • But the deduction extends to any claim for the enforcement of civil rights under federal, state, local or common law.
    — Robert W. Wood, Forbes.com, 18 Aug. 2025
  • Sedition in the early years of the United States English common law made sedition a crime, in writing or speech.
    — Dallas News, 13 Jan. 2022
  • And though the common law prohibited torture, James could use the rack, dungeon, and Skevington’s irons to get his way.
    — Andrew Cockburn, Harper's Magazine, 20 Aug. 2024
  • The Irish government, meanwhile, is pitching Dublin to firms who prefer common law to French civil law.
    — Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2019
  • The more than 30 others must remain in jail, the judge said, a departure from the right to bail under Hong Kong’s common law courts.
    — Washington Post, 4 Mar. 2021
  • Since the handover, Hong Kong has maintained the common law system inherited from British rule.
    — Kathleen Magramo, CNN, 29 Nov. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'common-law.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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