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3.1 English common law underwent a lengthy gestation before it emerged into the nuanced system which exists today. Its genesis can be traced back to the Norman Conquest of England. Prior to that point, England was made up of a number of separate kingdoms, each with its own local legal system. William the Conqueror's innovation was to unite these disparate systems so as to create a “law common to all”, thus giving rise to the term “common law”. This common law was administered by regional courts and was sanctioned by the ruling monarch. It drew on local customary law and was gradually fused into a set of nationwide precedents. These precedents created a body of governing formulations which could be applied in lower courts as fixed principles, subject to further development of precedent as novel situations arose.
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