What is the process of enacting legislation to govern areas previously governed solely by the common law?

• A. Equity
• B. Preemption
• C. Codification of the common law
• D. Federalism

Answer: (C)

Codification of the common law is what’s happening when legislation is created to govern areas that were previously governed by judge-made rules. Legislatures draft statutes that restate, organize, or replace the rules developed in common law, turning them into formal, written law. This brings clarity and consistency, since the rules are now laid out in statutory form and apply uniformly rather than relying on individual court decisions. It also ties those rules to the elected legislature, giving the public a clearer, more accessible source of law.

Equity is a separate branch of law focused on fairness historically developed by courts; it isn’t about enacting new statutes. Preemption is about one level of government overriding another’s laws, not the act of turning common-law rules into statutes. Federalism concerns how power is divided between levels of government, not the process of codifying common law.