However, it is important to understand that despite the presence of reception statutes, much of contemporary American common law has diverged significantly from <answer>English common law</answer>. The reason is that although the courts of the various Commonwealth nations are often influenced by each other's rulings, American courts rarely follow post-Revolution Commonwealth rulings unless there is no American ruling on point, the facts and law at issue are nearly identical, and the reasoning is strongly persuasive.
A lot of American common law diverged from where?
English common law