Harmony of Common Law and Divine Law

"...the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God..."
—Declaration of 1776—

The common law inherited in the American tradition is not religiously neutral. It arose within a Christian moral framework and presupposes a created moral order, objective truth, and accountability under God.

Accordingly, the common law and Holy Scripture derive from the same ultimate source: the God who is the author of both natural law and revealed law. The common law articulates moral truths accessible through reason and custom; Scripture reveals those truths with final authority and clarity.

Therefore, where any purported rule or application of common law contradicts the clear teaching of Scripture, it is not rightly considered part of the common-law tradition, but a corruption or departure from it.

This Charter affirms common law as a civil instrument consistent with divine law, while reserving Scripture as the supreme standard by which all law is judged.

Common law is the application of eternal law in specific instances; civil law is that which men manufacture to be applied in all instances. 


—Brent Allan Winters, American Common Lawyer

One of the beautiful boasts of our municipal jurisprudence is that Christianity is part of our Common Law, from which it seeks the sanctions of rights, and by which it endeavors to regulate its doctrines…. There never was a period, in which the Common Law did not recognize Christianity as its foundations.

—Joseph Story, Justice of the United States Supreme Court (1811-1845)