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'Judge Ling' from Ally McBeal is no more ridiculous than her more pompous colleagues, but both are the products of the common law. One of the sillier libertarian/conservative claims is that 'the common law' will automatically sort things out. The heck it will!

The Devil's Dictionary defines the Common Law as 'the whim of judges'. As most judges are either social justice creeps or doddering fools it doesn't take a genius to figure out that the common law 'discovered' or 'interpreted' by such people is as much a threat to freedom than the drafted statutes are. Except that at least one can look up the statutes, whereas only lawyers have the time and means to 'interpret' precedent.

Scrapping written legislation in favour of common law solutions is only a good idea for professional lawyers and full-time litigants: the sort of people who walk on cracked pavements hoping to trip up, chip a bone and sue.

Libertarians who want 'the common law' and decry 'the litigation culture' are like vegetarians asking for steak tartare.