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The court system today is still technically common law. That is to say it relies upon stare decisis (citation of case law). Since 1938 however that stare decisis has been replaced by Erie Doctrine; or a federalized bankruptcy style of common law. Justice Brandeis declared case law faulty between Swift v. Tyson (1842) and Erie RR Company v. Thompson (1938). That effectively reset the "common law" to be a new post-bankruptcy (1933), style of case citations.
Regards,
David Merrill.
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