Black-letter law

It may refer to the practice of setting law books and citing legal precedents in blackletter type, a tradition that survived long after the switch to Roman and italic text for other printed works.

It may also be linked to the Black Book of the Admiralty published in the Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that collates at least 1,000 years of European-based laws of the sea and an authority for the High Court of Admiralty Court and maritime cases in the early modern period.

The phrase refers to a distillation of the common law into general and accepted legal principles.

An example of such a state within the common law jurisdiction, and using the black letter legal doctrine is Canada.

Each of these volumes is divided into sections that begin with a text in boldface that summarizes a basic rule on an aspect of the law of contracts, agency, etc.