More than a decade ago, I remarked on the ahistoricity of California's adoption of English common law despite the fact that it had never been a colony of England.*  Yesterday, the California Court of Appeal applied English common law to decide a dispute over a gambling debt.  Tak Chun Gaming Promotion Co. Ltd. v. Long, 2023 WL 7036332:

In the intervening 173 years [since California's statutory adoption of English common law], our state has legalized many discrete types of gambling.  Does this shift to a selective and partial legalization of gambling warrant the abandonment of the common law rule shuttering the California courts to lawsuits seeking to enforce gambling debts?  We hold that it does not.  The public policy basis for not legalizing gambling and the public policy basis for not providing a judicial forum to enforce gambling debts are distinct; erosion of the former does not call the latter into question.  We consequently agree with the trial court that the lawsuit in this case seeking to enforce a gambling debt was properly dismissed

One might question, however, whether the courts actually applied English common law.  The term "common law" is commonly used to refer to uncodified laws derived from court decisions and custom.   The Court of Appeal, however, applied a statutory enactment of Parliament: "Among the enactments of Parliament adopted as California common law was the Statute of Anne, which declared all gambling debts 'utterly void, frustrate, and of none effect, to all intents and purposes whatsoever.'(9 Anne, ch. 14, § 1.)".  Thus, it appears that the Court applied an English statute rather than English common law.

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*In 1579, Sir Francis Drake claimed sovereignty of California in the name of Elizabeth I.  He named the land "Nova Albion".  "Nova" means new and "Albion" is an ancient name for England.  Thus, California was once named New England. 

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