Common law
The common lawso named because it was "common" to all the king's courts across Englandoriginated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066. Prior to the Norman Conquest, much of England's legal business took place in the local folk courts of its various shires and hundreds. A variety of other individual courts also existed across the land: urban boroughs and merchant fairs held their own courts, as did the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and large landholders also held their own manorial and seigniorial courts as needed. Additionally, the Catholic Church operated its own court system that adjudicated issues of canon law.
Commonwealth Lawyers Association
The CLA began as the Commonwealth & Empire Law Conference, first held in London in 1955. The Commonwealth Legal Bureau was subsequently established in 1968. The first Commonwealth Law Conference was held in Scotland in 1977. At the Commonwealth Law Conference held in Hong Kong in 1983 it was agreed that the CLB should be replaced by the Commonwealth Lawyers’ Association (CLA) and a Constitution was subsequently adopted in Jamaica in 1986.