1066
The Norman ConquestUK
William's royal courts begin replacing local custom with one body of law 'common' to all of England. Everything on this page descends from that project.
1215
Magna CartaUK
The King concedes, at swordpoint, that he too is under the law. Clause 39 — no punishment without lawful judgment — becomes the tradition's founding promise.
1400s
Equity emergesUK
The Court of Chancery grows up beside the rigid common law courts, deciding by conscience. Trusts and injunctions — equity's inventions — now run through the whole family.
1607
English law crosses the AtlanticUS
Jamestown is settled, and the colonies carry English common law with them — the doctrine of 'reception' that would later seed every system on this timeline.
1689
The Bill of RightsUK
After revolution, Parliament wins supremacy over the Crown. Parliamentary sovereignty becomes English law's central rule — and the thing half the family later modifies.
1701
Act of SettlementUK
Judges gain tenure during good behaviour rather than at the King's pleasure. Judicial independence gets its structural guarantee, inherited everywhere.
1765
Blackstone's CommentariesUKUS
William Blackstone puts the sprawling common law into four readable volumes. The Commentaries become the export edition — for a century, often the only law book in an American or colonial lawyer's office.
1776
American independenceUS
The thirteen colonies leave the family home but keep the furniture: English common law as received remains the base of American law.
1788
The First FleetAustralia
British settlement brings English law to Australia on the premise of terra nullius — a premise the law itself would repudiate two centuries later.
1791
The US Bill of RightsUS
Ten amendments give the new constitution teeth. A written, judicially enforced catalogue of rights — the model the rest of the family would circle for two centuries.
1803
Marbury v MadisonUS
The US Supreme Court claims the power to strike down unconstitutional statutes. Judicial review is born — America's most influential legal export.
1833
The Privy Council formalisedUK
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council becomes the empire's final court, hearing appeals from Canada, Australia, New Zealand, India and beyond — one court quietly harmonising a world of common law.
1840
Treaty of WaitangiNew Zealand
Rangatira and the Crown sign at Waitangi, in two languages that do not quite say the same thing. New Zealand law has been working through the difference ever since.
1858
Crown rule in IndiaIndia
After the 1857 uprising, the British Crown replaces the East India Company. A unified court system and the great codes follow.
1860
The Indian Penal CodeIndia
Macaulay's code writes the criminal common law down — a codified common law that travels across the empire, from Singapore to Nigeria.
1867
Canadian ConfederationCanada
The British North America Act unites four colonies as a federation under Westminster government — the first attempt at bolting federalism onto the British constitution.
1875
The Judicature ActsUK
England fuses its tangle of courts; law and equity are administered together from here on. The family's court structures largely follow.
1901
Australian FederationAustralia
Six colonies federate under a constitution approved by referendum — studied from both the Canadian and American blueprints, and deliberately omitting a bill of rights.
1931
Statute of WestminsterUKCanadaAustraliaNew Zealand
Britain renounces the power to legislate for the dominions. Canada, Australia and New Zealand become legislatively independent — on their own timetables.
1949
Canada's appeals to London endCanada
The Supreme Court of Canada becomes truly supreme. The family starts leaving the Privy Council, one by one.
1950
India's ConstitutionIndia
The world's longest constitution takes effect: common law procedure under entrenched fundamental rights, with universal suffrage from day one.
1966
The Practice StatementUK
The House of Lords announces it may depart from its own precedents. Stare decisis gets its modern safety valve.
1973
Kesavananda BharatiIndia
India's Supreme Court holds that even constitutional amendments cannot destroy the constitution's basic structure — the boldest claim of judicial power in the family's history.
1982
Canada patriates its constitutionCanada
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms is entrenched, with a notwithstanding clause as the compromise between British parliamentary sovereignty and American judicial review — a distinctly Canadian settlement.
1986
The Australia ActsAustralia
The last appeals from Australian courts to London end; the High Court is finally final.
1992
Mabo v Queensland (No 2)Australia
Australia's High Court rejects terra nullius and recognises native title — the common law correcting its own founding premise.
1998
Human Rights Act & devolutionUK
Convention rights become enforceable in UK courts — stopping short of striking down statutes — and Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland get legislatures.
2004
New Zealand's Supreme Court opensNew Zealand
The last member of the family to use the Privy Council brings its final appeals home to Wellington.
2009
The UK Supreme CourtUK
The Law Lords leave Parliament for a courtroom across the square. Even the tradition's birthplace now separates its top court from its legislature.
2024
India replaces the Macaulay codesIndia
The Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and its companions supersede the 1860s criminal codes — the biggest rewrite of any family member's criminal law in a century.