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. The British Empire spread the English legal system to its historical colonies, many of which retain the common law system today. These "common law systems" are legal systems that give great precedential weight to common law, and to the style of reasoning inherited from the English legal system.
Common law
Scots "common law" covers matters including murder and theft, and has sources in custom, in legal writings and previous court decisions. The legal writings used are called "Institutional Texts" and come mostly from the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries. Examples include Craig, "Jus Feudale" (1655) and Stair, "The Institutions of the Law of Scotland" (1681).