<P> As common law courts, U.S. courts have inherited the principle of stare decisis . American judges, like common law judges elsewhere, not only apply the law, they also make the law, to the extent that their decisions in the cases before them become precedent for decisions in future cases . </P> <P> The actual substance of English law was formally "received" into the United States in several ways . First, all U.S. states except Louisiana have enacted "reception statutes" which generally state that the common law of England (particularly judge - made law) is the law of the state to the extent that it is not repugnant to domestic law or indigenous conditions . Some reception statutes impose a specific cutoff date for reception, such as the date of a colony's founding, while others are deliberately vague . Thus, contemporary U.S. courts often cite pre-Revolution cases when discussing the evolution of an ancient judge - made common law principle into its modern form, such as the heightened duty of care traditionally imposed upon common carriers . </P> <P> Second, a small number of important British statutes in effect at the time of the Revolution have been independently reenacted by U.S. states . Two examples that many lawyers will recognize are the Statute of Frauds (still widely known in the U.S. by that name) and the Statute of 13 Elizabeth (the ancestor of the Uniform Fraudulent Transfer Act). Such English statutes are still regularly cited in contemporary American cases interpreting their modern American descendants . </P> <P> However, it is important to understand that despite the presence of reception statutes, much of contemporary American common law has diverged significantly from English common law . The reason is that although the courts of the various Commonwealth nations are often influenced by each other's rulings, American courts rarely follow post-Revolution Commonwealth rulings unless there is no American ruling on point, the facts and law at issue are nearly identical, and the reasoning is strongly persuasive . </P>

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