“It has been sometimes said, communis error facit jus; but I say communis opinio is evidence of what the law is; not where it is an opinion merely floating and theoretical floating in the minds of persons but where it has been made the ground-work and substratum of practice.”

Isherwood v. Oldknow (1815), 3M. &S. (K. B. Rep.) 396, 397.

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Edward Law, 1st Baron Ellenborough 21
Lord Chief Justice of England 1750–1818

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