ABSTRACT
The emergency conditions of wartime and the decision for independence tested the liberties that Americans had secured under their colonial governments and the British Constitution. During the war period, however, the states' legal systems were essentially identical with those of the colonial past. Significant reforms did not occur until after the war. Legal principles and procedures reflected British common law usage, and the states, as did the Pennsylvania legislature expressly, on February 11, 1777, allowed continuance of British statute law specifically relating to the colonies as long as it posed no conflicts with independence. 1
