American courts embraced western miners’ customs over English common-law doctrines

Evidence

Vise judges and lawyers, however, saw readily enough that Blackstone’s test of existence from time immemorial was patent nonsense ina new and changing country, and largely ignored it. … One of the most striking episodes was the acceptance, by courts and legislatures alike, of the customs of miners in the western territories and states as valid and generally binding. … Similarly, the force of custom in opposition to the common law was a crucial issue in the long and varying struggle between the doctrine of prior appropriation as a basis for water rights, which grew out of the customs of miners, and the canmon law doctrine of riparian rights. — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 976

Categorization

• XREF: Environmental justice/land thread — western water rights doctrine (prior appropriation vs. riparian) as a polyad cornerstone. — connects to: American courts adopted only the English common law applicable to local conditions — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process: Basic Problems in…, 972; Nineteenth-century judges actively reshaped common law to fit American conditions. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2837; American negotiable instruments law was more advanced than England’s — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 1578 (+4 more)
• SEED: Possible follow-through: how settler water law legitimized miners’ customary claims over prior Indigenous water uses — links to colonial land thread.

Broader Connections

• American courts adopted only the English common law applicable to local conditions #qualifies (0.80) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 972
• Nineteenth-century judges actively reshaped common law to fit American conditions. #corroborates (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2837