1. Roman & civil law. The common or public law or right, as opposed to a law or right established for special purposes. Cf. JUS SINGULARE.
2. The common law of England. See COMMON LAW(3).
3. The shared law of much of continental Western Europe during the Middle Ages, consisting of a blend of canon law and rediscovered Roman law.
“[J]us commune is a phrase well known to the canonists. They use it to distinguish the general and ordinary law of the universal church both from any rules peculiar to this or that provincial church, and from those papal privilegia which are always giving rise to ecclesiastical litigation.” 1 Frederick Pollock & Frederic William Maitland, History of English Law Before the Time of Edward I 176 (2d ed. 1898).
