Created by judges or judicial decision; -- applied esp. to law applied or established by the judicial interpretation of statutes so as extend or restrict their scope, as to meet new cases, to provide new or better remedies, etc., and often used opprobriously of acts of judicial interpretation considered as doing this.
Judge-made law is contrasted with
statutory law and
civil law. [
Webster 1913 Suppl.]
"The law of the 13th century was judge-made law in a fuller and more literal sense than the law of any succeeding century has been."
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]