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 marriage in the United States
Domestic contract of common law marriage was abolished in the following 27 states on the dates indicated. Note that Massachusetts (which included Maine, 1652 - 1820) abolished common law marriage during the colonial period and before it was abolished in England and Wales.These 13 states have never permitted domestic common law marriage; but like all 50 states and the District of Columbia, they recognise all validly contracted out-of-state marriages, including validly contracted common law marriages.Outside of confederation, the Territory of Guam does not recognise common law marriage. The Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands also does not recognise common law marriage but "might" recognise customary marriage. In "Santos v. Commonwealth", Petitioner argued that common law marriage was sufficiently similar to Carolinian customary marriage that it should be recognised as the same. The Court ruled that, while CNMI statute provides that (English) common law provides the rule of decision in the absence of statutory law "or" customary law to the contrary, Petitioner did not argue that her marriage was a marriage under "customary" law but a marriage under "common law"; thus, whereas a validly contracted marriage under Carolinian or Chamorro customary law might be held a valid marriage, a common law marriage could "not" be.