Apex Courts and the Development of the Common Law

One of the distinguishing features of common law courts – especially apex courts – is that they make new law. Unlike courts in civil law countries, where judicial law-making is not meant to happen and is at times expressly forbidden or accorded merely a complementary role,¹ common law courts can create new causes of action, award new remedies, develop new legal principles, and lay down authoritative interpretations of legislation. The myth that, in common law countries, judges do not create law, but merely discover it, has been well and truly debunked.² More particularly, in recent years, there has been a