To mitigate the harshness of the common-law rule, Pennsylvania divided murder into "degrees" in 1794.

He said the common-law rule should not be "extended by rote to modern restraints," which were different "in certain essential respects" from old-fashioned irons.

Had it not so intended it would simply have left the common-law rule intact.

Any common-law rule established by judicial precedent may be amended or removed by a statute passed by Parliament.

The dismissal was made on common-law rules, against agreements of indefinite duration.

But here the independent counsel has simply not made a sufficient showing to overturn the common-law rule embodied in the prevailing case law.

Thus, the common-law rule was extended to provide liability for the negligent manufacture of a product that becomes dangerous because it was defectively produced.

The common-law rules of natural justice applied unless the relevant statute had expressly or by necessary implication excluded them.

The court held that the common-law year-and-a-day rule survived in Tennessee, but was outmoded.

Under the common-law rule, one does not look to whether an interest actually will vest more than 21 years after the lives in being.