American courts inherited common-law rulemaking and thus judges make law

Evidence

During the seventeenth century, most colonists immigrated to North America from England, and they brought the English legal system with them. When the United States declared its independence from England, the new states retained their common-law legal systems. Thus, like their English counterparts, American judges have enunciated legal standards in the absence of legislation to resolve disputes between litigants. This in turn has guaranteed American judges a major role in lawmaking. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 138

Categorization

• XREF: Directly supports the course claim that judges act as policymakers through interpretation and gap-filling. — connects to: American courts have grown in their role governing the nation. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 90; World legal systems divide into common-law and civil-law families by origin — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 104; Common law originated in judge-made decisions resting on societal customs and practices. — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 134 (+17 more)

Broader Connections

• American judges reshaped inherited common law to fit democracy and industrialization #expands (0.90) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 139
• The American legal system is common law yet distinctive for judicial policymaking #expands (0.90) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 213
• Judges are the source of law in common-law but legislatures in civil-law systems #expands (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 135
• American courts are enmeshed in policymaking through their duty to interpret law #expands (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 213
• Judges create and reshape legal rules by reasoning analogically across cases, not by deduction #expands (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2542
• Judges create legal rules by weighing case similarities, not by applying fixed rules #expands (0.85) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 1263
• Nineteenth-century judges actively reshaped common law to fit American conditions. #exemplifies (0.82) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 2837
• State courts make constitutional and common-law policy in distinct doctrinal domains #expands (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 3267
• Judges create law when forced to choose among competing interpretations. #exemplifies (0.80) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 196
• Courts share an obligation to modernize outdated common-law rules #corroborates (0.80) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 2367
• Judge-made common law originated as customary unwritten law. #qualifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 133
• Judges create law when forced to resolve statutory ambiguity. #exemplifies (0.78) — G. Alan Tarr, Judicial Process and Judicial…, 187
• American courts embraced western miners’ customs over English common-law doctrines #exemplifies (0.78) — Henry M. Hart, Jr. and Albert M. Sacks, The Legal Process, 976