Common Law vs. Statutory Law

by Brent Johnson

Common Law

All laws of the united States of America were founded on common law. American common law is founded on British common law. British common law dates back to the thirteenth Century and the Magna Charta, though in truth it dates back much farther. Common law dates back to the beginning of history, or at least the interaction of people with each other. Common law predates all governments and all established systems of law.

Common law is the unwritten law concerning how people relate to each other. It is the universally accepted standard for personal interaction. It may be summed up as follows: each of us is entitled to our lives, our liberty, and our property. Nobody has the right to forcibly take another’s life, liberty or property.

Throughout the millennia of rule by kings, emperors, Caesars, etc., the rulers’ positions were that the kings word was law, and nobody could contest or otherwise challenge it. In modern times, this was first opposed by the English nobility in the time of King John. The nobility’s revolt resulted in the king being forced to sign the Magna Charta, which recognized that even the king had limits on what he could do; that certain rights existed over which the king had no authority.

The Declaration of Independence further - and brilliantly - elucidated this concept, explaining that each individual had certain rights with which he was endowed by his Creator - not by the king - and that the king (or government) could never forcibly take away those rights, or restrict or control them for his own purposes.

However, neither the Magna Charta nor the Declaration of Independence - or any other document throughout history - was the source of common law. Common law predated them all.

It has been said that in today’s world common law is no longer valid. This can be no more true than the idea that the Earth is flat. Common law has always existed, and it will always exist. However, modern governments have superseded common law in the most devious and sinister ways.

Under common law, your rights cannot be forcibly taken from you, not even by the king, president, Ayatollah, emperor, or any government claiming authority over large numbers of people. However, among your unalienable, Creator-endowed rights is the right to willingly waive your rights. This is what governments around the world have done; they have gotten the people to agree not to exercise their common law rights.

Statutory Law

Unlike common law, statutory law gets its existence from some governmental body that has enacted such laws. For example, the United States federal government enacts statutory laws by Acts of Congress. Like all created entities, that which has been created is subject to the control of its creator. Since Congress created statutory law, therefore it controls statutory law, and those who are subject to it.

All United States (federal) citizens are subject to statutory law, and therefore are subject to the control of Congress. These citizens are not living under common law, because they have voluntarily waived their common law rights in order to reap the benefits of being subject to statutory law.

In the United States, such benefits include Social Security, government health care, public education, small business loans, student loans, and a plethora of other so-called entitlement programs that purport to make life easier for those same citizens. But at what cost?

Did you know that when you obtained your Social Security number you agreed to waive your God-given unalienable rights under common law? Or that in order to obtain Medicare or Medicaid you must agree to not exercise those same fundamental rights? That is the sinister method that governments everywhere have used to obtain almost complete control over the population of the world.

To add insult to injury, most people would defend their participation in these government sponsored benefit programs and the abject servitude that comes with it rather than look at their own complicity in their lack of fundamental rights, and explore ways in which they can reclaim those rights.

Twentieth Century statesman Dresden James said it well, “They rattle their chains to boast of their freedom.”

You are either under common law or statutory law

You cannot be protected by common law if you are subject to statutory law. It is one or the other; you cannot enjoy both.

Any time you operate with a taxpayer identification number (TIN) of any kind (SSN, EIN, etc.) you are subject to statutory law, and have thereby waived your right to the protections of common law.

You must choose either the benefits of statutory law along with the inherent liability of having waived your fundamental rights, or the protections of common law along with the necessary consequence that you are ineligible for any government benefits.

Reclaiming Common Law Rights

Once you understand that you have voluntarily waived your rights under common law in favor of your subjection to statutory law, you are then in a position to reclaim those rights. Anything that has been waived voluntarily can be taken back. Your rights are more a part of you than your arms and legs. You can lose your arms and legs but you can never lose you Creator-endowed rights.

If you are willing to give up your eligibility for all government benefits - the cost of which are your rights - then you can take back your rights and again live under common law, which is the only avenue to a life of freedom.

If you let go of your eligibility for Social Security, government health care, public education, government loans, etc. then you can reclaim your liberty. If you use genuine common law trusts to protect your property then you can avoid the ever-present succubus of government taxes and regulations. These are available to anyone - regardless of the country in which you live - because your rights are not subject to the controls of governments or kings.

The only question you need to ask yourself is… am I willing to do whatever is necessary to reclaim my rights and freedoms? If you value liberty above all else then the answer is yes. If you don’t then you are dooming yourself and your children to a life of abject slavery to government institutions.

Brent Johnson is Director of Freedom Bound International, a common law service center dedicated to the preservation of personal freedom, privacy rights and the Declaration of Independence. He may be reached at 1-888-385-FREE or on-line at www.freedomradio.us.