Common Law Resources

Ownership constructs can be challenged on many fronts. One of those fronts is through common law, a legal construct residing on the far right of the political spectrum. For those pursuing legal cases in a court of record at common law (see 7th Amendment) instead of in a stautory court, either to challenge a zoning law or to defend your squatted settlement, or if you’ve been called into a statutory court and want to invoke the common law, the following are some good articles and resources:

Onsite
The Royal Extraordinary Writs -- an overview of what the extraordinary writs are, such as Habeas Corpus.
A Report on Civil and Common Law (non-imposed) -- a phenomenally explanatory report by a committee of the 1st legislature of California in 1850.

Offsite
McUlta -- A site explaining in great detail the common law and how it works.
1215.org -- A site about one individual’s approach to filing a suit at common law, not terribly intuitive, but its a great place to start. -- Their site also likes to use the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure as a guide (pdf imposed zine).

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Admittedly there are lots of paths to creating an anarchist world, this may be one of them, or at the least to defend an anarchist project at present. Regarding the planning field and its transformation, common law and its superiority to statutory zoning might be a helpful tool for you.

Still, one must recognize that the common law is a flawed system too, so even this must be abandoned or transformed eventually. In several common law pleading and practice books, they also make reference to this great pliability of the common law to adapt to virtually any circumstance and social evolution which may occur. And arguably, including the abandonment of the ownership construct.

Also see: Common-Law Pleading and Practice: Its History and Principles, by R. Ross Perry, 1897, and Principles of Common-Law Pleading, by John Jay McKelvey, 1894.


None of this should be taken as legal advice.