Sources of Law

Sources of law means the origin from which rules of human conduct come into existence and derive legal force or binding characters.It also refers to the sovereign or the state from which the law derives its force or validity.

Several factors of law have contributed to the development of law. These factors are regarded as the sources of law:

1- Precedent is one of the sources of law. The judgements passed by some of the learned jurists became another significant source of law. when there is no legislature on particular point which arises in changing conditions, The judges depend on their own sense of right and wrong and decide the disputes. such decisions become authority or guide for subsequent cases of a similar nature and they are called precedents. The dictionary of English law defines a judicial precedent as a judgement or decision of a court of law cited as an authority for deciding a similar state of fact in the same manner or on the same principle or by analogy. Precedent is more flexible than legislation and custom. It is always ready to be, used.

2 - Customs are rules which in a particular family or in a particular district or in a particular section, Class or tribe, have from long usage obtained the force of law. The dictionary of English law defines custom as a law not written, which being established by long use and consent of our ancestors has been and daily is put into practice. Custom as a source of law got recognition since the emergence of savigny on the horizon of jurisprudence. It is an exemption to the ordinary law of the land, and every custom is limited in its application.

3- Legislation is that source of law which consist in the declaration of legal rules by a competent authority. Legislature is the direct source of law. Legislature frames new laws amends, the old laws and cancels the existing in all countries. In modern times this is the most important source of law making. The term legislature means any form of law making. Its scope has now been restricted so a particular form of law making. It not only creates new rules of law it also sweeps away existing inconvenient rules.

4 - Statuory interpretation is a very important function of the court, the process of ascertaining the meaning of letters and expressions by the court is either interpretation or construction. Interpretation is the process of which the court seeks to ascertain the Meaning of a particular legislature. It is through interpretation, the judiciary evolves the law and brings the changes in it and thus keeps the law abreast of law.

5 - Preparatory works. In some legal cultures some of the documents produced in the process leading up to legislation are subsequently used as guidelines on how to interpret and understand an act of legislation.