"The common law stands or falls on personal liberty of conscience— one's common sense of right from wrong and the freedom to act upon that sense—as one soaks his mind with Scripture. By contrast, the civil law rests on the imperial will of the state: the command of a man, or a combination of men, set forth in legislation and regulations, applied to all alike in unforgiving and ruthless precision. Thus, the controlling difference between the common law and the civil law, and the footing upon which the common law keeps going, is consonant with Scripture: God alone is LORD of the one's conscience. Neither Scripture nor the common-law tradition offers the civil law's illusion of a safe harbor in one's obedience to the state. Each person will answer to God, and to God alone, for his actions. "
"Every human choice begs judgment between good or bad, right or wrong, better or best; as such, human choice needs standards whereby to measure choices, i.e., law. The common law's rudimentary precepts and processes accord with God's Word written; where deviation occurs, the common-law provides opportunity through due process and guidance by first principles for correction. Because the common-law follows the surefootedness of fact as opposed to speculation—testing all things against not only reason, but against the facts, the senses, and reasonableness—it allows the best opportunity for God's standards to cross the chasm between divine ideals and the particular working out of those ideals. The common-law tradition still offers the process through which scriptural principles can flow into the activities our law and government, to the good of all. "
"Scripture acknowledges that God uses all men to work His purposes; thus, all are fit to take part in the common-law tradition. It remains, however, the personal and non-delegable duty of God's man to build God's Word into the fabric of his nation's consciousness, one person at a time, enlivening the common-law tradition. The common law rests not upon superior education, learning, genius of the human mind, or even human goodness; but relies, instead, upon the capability—impressed into the natural being, the soul, the common senses of every person, as set forth in Romans 2:14–15—to recognize right and wrong behavior. "
-- From Excellence of the Common Law Compared and Contrasted with Civil Law In Light of History, Nature & Scripture
Brent Allan Winters —American Common Lawyer—
