Common law is the body of law derived from judicial decisions of courts and similar tribunals. The defining characteristic of "common law" is. In cases where the parties disagree on what the law is, a common law court looks to past precedential decisions of relevant courts, synthesizes the principles of those past cases as applicable to the current facts. If a similar dispute has been resolved in the past, the court is bound to follow the reasoning used in the prior decision. If, the court finds that the current dispute is fundamentally distinct from all previous cases, legislative statutes are either silent or ambiguous on the question, judges have the authority and duty to resolve the issue; the court states an opinion that gives reasons for the decision, those reasons agglomerate with past decisions as precedent to bind future judges and litigants. Common law, as the body of law made by judges, stands in contrast to and on equal footing with statutes which are adopted through the legislative process, regulations which are promulgated by the executive branch.

Stare decisis, the principle that cases should be decided according to consistent principled rules so that similar facts will yield similar results, lies at the heart of all common law systems. The common law—so named because it was "common" to all the king's courts across England—originated in the practices of the courts of the English kings in the centuries following the Norman Conquest in 1066; the British Empire spread the English legal system to its colonies, many of which retain the common law system today. These "common law systems" are legal systems that give great weight to judicial precedent, to the style of reasoning inherited from the English legal system. Today, one-third of the world's population lives in common law jurisdictions or in systems mixed with civil law, including Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Botswana, Cameroon, Cyprus, Fiji, Grenada, Hong Kong, Ireland, Jamaica, Liberia, Malta, Marshall Islands, Namibia, New Zealand, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sri Lanka and Tobago, the United Kingdom, the United States, Zimbabwe.

Some of these countries have variants on common law systems. In these countries, common law is considered synonymous with case law; the term common law has many connotations. The first three set out here are the most-common usages within the legal community. Other connotations from past centuries are sometimes seen and are sometimes heard in everyday speech; the first definition of "common law" given in Black's Law Dictionary, 10th edition, 2014, is "The body of law derived from judicial decisions, rather than from statutes or constitutions. This usage is given as the first definition in modern legal dictionaries, is characterized as the "most common" usage among legal professionals, is the usage seen in decisions of courts. In this connotation, "common law" distinguishes the authority. For example, the law in most Anglo-American jurisdictions includes "statutory law" enacted by a legislature, "regulatory law" or “delegated legislation” promulgated by executive branch agencies pursuant to delegation of rule-making authority from the legislature, common law or "case law", i.e. decisions issued by courts.

This first connotation can be further differentiated into general common law arising from the traditional and inherent authority of courts to define what the law is in the absence of an underlying statute or regulation. Examples include most criminal law and procedural law before the 20th century, today, most contract law and the law of torts. Interstitial common law court decisions that analyze and determine the fine boundaries and distinctions in law promulgated by other bodies; this body of common law, sometimes called "interstitial common law", includes judicial interpretation of the Constitution, of legislative statutes, of agency regulations, the application of law to specific facts. Publication of decisions, indexing, is essential to the development of common law, thus governments and private publishers publish law reports. While all decisions in common law jurisdictions are precedent, some become "leading cases" or "landmark decisions" that are cited often. Black's Law Dictionary 10th Ed. definition 2, differentiates "common law" jurisdictions and legal systems from "civil law" or "code" jurisdictions.

Common law systems place great weight on court decisions, which are considered "law" with the same force of law as statutes—for nearly a millennium, common law courts have had the authority to make law where no legislative statute exists, statutes mean what courts interpret them to mean. By contrast, in civil law jurisdictions, courts lack authority to act. Civil law judges tend to give less

The Holcroft Covenant is a 1985 thriller film based on the Robert Ludlum novel of the same name. The film stars Michael Caine and was directed by John Frankenheimer; the script was written by Edward Anhalt, George Axelrod, John Hopkins. Noel Holcroft's late father -, a former associate of Adolf Hitler - left behind a fortune to make amends for his wrongdoings, but more than forty years Noel finds himself embroiled in a web of conspiracies involving the children of two of his father's Nazi colleagues, a mysterious organisation devoted to ensuring the Nazis never again come to power, a woman who may be Noel's downfall or his only hope. Michael Caine as Noel Holcroft Anthony Andrews as Johann von Tiebolt/Jonathan Tennyson Victoria Tennant as Helden von Tiebolt/Helden Tennyson Lilli Palmer as Althene Holcroft Mario Adorf as Erich Kessler/Jürgen Maas Michael Lonsdale as Manfredi Bernard Hepton as Leighton Shane Rimmer as Lieutenant Miles Alexander Kerst as General Heinrich Clausen Michael Wolf as General Erich Kessler Richard Münch as Oberst The film was part of a five picture slate from Thorn EMI in 1985, others including A Passage to India, Wild Geese II, Morons from Outer Space and Dreamchild.

Edy and Ely Landau bought the film rights to the novel along with The Chancellor Manuscript. The first draft of the script was done by John Hopkins before Edward Anhalt was brought in to do rewrites. However, when John Frankenheimer became attached as director, he got George Axelrod to rework most of the screenplay. Frankenheimer called the film "a conspiracy movie" about "a man's search for his father"; the director added, "I love Ludlum. I'm a great fan of Ludlum. I buy Ludlum's books. I mean, I pay bookstore prices for Ludlum"."The script I worked from was humorless," says Axelrod. "When John and I suggested adding much more humor, the producers said they didn't want a Walter Matthau romp. But John told them he could take the script of Some Like It Hot and turn it into a social documentary on the effects of gang warfare on the music business in Chicago during Prohibition and how that affected women's liberation - and that they needn't worry about him being too funny." Axelrod admitted he did not read the novel because he didn't have time.

Renee Soutendijk was meant to have a role in the film but it was removed shortly before filming and she was told she was not required for filming. "In my opinion, it was central to the story but... such things have happened before," she said. "It's the American way of dealing with people. In the U. S. you become aware of just being a product. You're either money to them or you're not."Although James Caan was cast as Noel Holcroft, he walked off the set due to disagreements with the producers. Director John Frankenheimer said "I will be forever grateful to James Caan. Forever; because he gave me the best gift that's happened to me in my career, Michael Caine." As far as I'm concerned, he is the best actor I've worked with," added Frankenheimer. "Certainly the best actor I've worked with who gets the girl." Filming started in Berlin on 2 July 1984. After Caan left the film, filming resumed on 11 July. Scenes were shot in Munich and London; the film was released on October 18, 1985. Against an $8 million budget, the film made only $393,825 in the United States during its initial release.

The film has negative reviews. Variety said its troubled production had resulted in a film that has "a muddled narrative deficient in thrills or plausibility". Time Out London says all Caine does is spend the film "jetting to international tourist locations so that he can be filled in on the next plot twist by an obliging minor character". Questionable directorial decisions by John Frankenheimer combined with "Ludlum’s lame storytelling" and "trying to turn the rambling, 528-page potboiler into a leaner 100-minute-long movie" are said to have contributed to the film's failings; the film has been released on DVD and Blu-ray. The Holcroft Covenant on IMDb The Holcroft Covenant at Rotten Tomatoes

This is a recap of the 2012–13 season for the Professional Bowlers Association Tour. It was the tour's 54th season, the fourth straight season in which all of the North American fall events are condensed into the PBA World Series of Bowling; the season consisted of a "PBA League" team title event. The PBA billed 2012–13 as a "super season", running longer than one full year, in preparation for a return to a calendar-year season format for 2014; this is the first season since 2003–04 in which all events are open to any PBA member, as the Tour has abandoned the "exempt" tour format that began in the 2004–05 season. While "exempt" status for touring players has been dropped, the PBA Tour will still have a points system which affects a few events as well as "Touring 1" and "Touring 2" player statuses. For the fourth season in a row, the PBA held the fall North American events in one location at the GEICO PBA World Series of Bowling. Preliminary rounds of the televised tournaments were November 3–7, with television tapings on November 10–11.

All of the events were held at the South Point Casino's bowling center in Nevada. The season will run an unprecedented 14 months, concluding with a second PBA World Series of Bowling in the fall of 2013; this is in preparation for a move to a calendar year national tour format in 2014. In all, the 2012–13 season will have 40 title events, including 15 international tour stops; the international stops are part of the World Bowling Tour, but will award PBA titles to winners who are full-fledged PBA members at the time of the tournament. The World Series of Bowling for 2012 included four stand-alone title tournaments, plus the PBA World Championship major; the qualifying rounds of each stand-alone "animal pattern" event served as the initial qualifying for the PBA World Championship. The PBA World Championship held match-play for the top 24 bowlers on November 8–9; the WBT Men's and WBT Women's final rounds were taped at the WSOB for a TV broadcast. The WBT Men's final is now a PBA title event. All final rounds at the 2012 WSOB returned to a stepladder format, after an "eliminator" format was used for several events in 2011.

Following the WSOB, the Round1 Japan Cup invitational tournament took place November 29 – December 2 in Japan. This tournament, which includes a number of PBA Tour players and is a PBA title event, was not held in 2011 due to the earthquake and resulting tsunami in Japan. After three more international tour stops, the "PBA Winter Swing" commenced in North America with four tournaments in Allen Park, Michigan held January 19–28, 2013; the "PBA Summer Swing" took place May 19 – June 2, with four full tournaments held in and around Milwaukee, plus a made-for-TV "King of the Swing" stepladder final. The remaining three major tournaments are spread out through 2013. Below is a schedule of events for the 2012–13 PBA Tour season. Major tournaments are in bold. Career PBA title numbers for winners are shown in parenthesis. C: broadcast on CBS Sports Network E: broadcast on ESPN 2012–13 Season Schedule