The first systematic exposition of the English law was written by a Judge of Assize, Henry de Bracton, in the reign of Henry III - about 1250. The book was nearly 900 pages and was entitled A Tract on the Laws and Customs of England or "De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae" and "Notebook." These described the common law using 2,000 judicial rulings.

The book did not so much state the common law as explained and commented upon it. Written "digests" and "codes," (such as produced by Rome,) stating the law and defining all the possible "right relationships" that might occur between individuals and others was alien to the spirit and tradition of the Common Law. The ancient organic law was already there in the customs of the land, it was only a matter of discovering it by diligent study and comparison of recorded decisions of earlier cases, then applying it to the particular case before the court.