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...