I'm a critic of all of the foundations of the US legal system, but I would want to know more about the effects of something like "abolish common law" before we jump right in.

I see that a little like someone yelling "let's abolish gravity" without stopping to consider: "what continues to exist if gravity no longer applies?"

I've spent more than a decade working in the courts. Also there is an entire section of the Wikipedia page on common law called "alternatives to common law systems".

Imagine a system in which every time you encounter a new problem or a new variation on a known problem, the only acceptable response is one which comports with what you've done before. That's common law.

I first encountered Chesterton’s Fence [0] in an HN thread about a year ago. I think your comment echoes that principle nicely.

[0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Chesterton%27s_fen...