Which term describes the body of law developed from judicial decisions rather than statutes?

• A. Common law
• B. Stare decisis
• C. Codification of the common law
• D. Derogation of the common law

Answer: (A)

The body of law that grows from judicial decisions rather than statutes is known as common law. In common law systems, courts decide cases and issue rulings that establish rules for future cases; over time these rulings become a cohesive body of precedent that governs many legal areas. Judges interpret and apply statutes but also fill in gaps with rules derived from prior decisions, so the law evolves through case law rather than just written statutes.

Stare decisis, the principle that prior decisions guide future rulings, is a mechanism within this system but describes how decisions are treated, not the body of law itself. Codification of the common law is the process of collecting or converting those unwritten rules into statutes, which changes how the law is recorded but isn’t what the body of law is called. Derogation of the common law isn’t a standard term for the body of law at all; it would refer to reducing or repealing parts of the law.

So, the term that best fits the description is common law.