Following are the six sources of law:
1. Custom or Usage
It is the earliest source of law. A custom is the habit of the people, handed down to them from generation to generation as their traditions. It deals with such affairs and relations which occur repeatedly in the social life of the people, like agricultural operations and relations, marriage, family relations, inheritance, sale and purchase of goods, etc. Indeed, custom was the king of the primitive people before the political sovereign or State arose. Till very recent times, the State did not make laws but only maintained customs and usages of the people. Even today many laws are derived from them. They are called customary laws. The most prominent example of such laws is the English Common Law. It comprises those customs which the English State, that is, the English Judges, accepted as law.
2. Religion
Religion, magic and superstition have been very old sources of laws. In earlier ages, people followed the precepts and rules of their religions, which they believed to be of divine origin, called divine laws. They believed that disobedience of divine laws would be punished by divine wrath. The religious law became the source of law. For instance, the Muslim Law or Shariah is derived from the Quran and the Hadith; the Hindu law is derived from Hindu Dharma, or Shastras.
3. Judicial Decisions
Judges are primarily concerned with the adjudication or settlement of disputes according to the existing laws. But sometimes a case may be of such a nature that the existing law may not cover it fully. If so, the judge would interpret the existing law in order to deal with the case. Thus his decision would extend the existing law and would become a precedent for other courts to follow. Such decisions are called judge-made laws, precedents of case-law. The judge, however, does not make law in the same manner as a legislature does, which is competent to make a new law altogether. The judge is necessarily guided by the existing laws, which he interprets or extends to similar, though not identical, cases. The decisions of the judges are considered to be equivalent to the legislative Acts, because the judicial power is included in the sovereignty of the State.
4. Scientific Commentaries
The commentaries of the reputed jurists and great writers on law also become a source of laws. A legal commentator compares, discusses and comments upon the laws and finds their principles. His arguments are not binding on the judges. But they are guided by them in their decisions, if he has won recognition and reputation as a great commentator. The greater the recognition and reputation the stronger his authority would be. Thus the scientific commentaries of well-known jurists become another source of laws. For instance, in England the commentaries of Coke, Hale and Blackstone are such sources for English law. Among the Muslims, Faqihs are such sources. Hindu Law is derived from the Mitakshara and the Dayabhaga.
5. Equity
The term ‘equity’ means justice or fairness. In law, it means the power of a judge to decide a case according to his sense of justice or fairness. Ordinarily, a judge administers a law or dispenses legal justice, that is, he decides cases according to the provisions of the law. But there are three occasions when a judge has to decide a case not according to law but according his sense of justice or equity. They are, firstly, when a case is of such a nature that no law actually exists about it; secondly, when the existing law is iniquitous or apparently unjust, and therefore to apply it would cause injustice; and thirdly, when the social conditions have so changed that to apply an old law would cause injustice.
They are called equity cases. In such cases, the judge will be guided by his sense of justice or equity and not by the provisions of the existing law. In England, there are special equity courts, but in Pakistan the judges of the High Courts and the Supreme Court act as equity judges. Equity is also a kind of judge-made law, but is different from it in one fundamental sense. In case-law, the judge is guided by the existing law; he merely interprets it. In equity, he is not guided by the existing law, but by his common-sense or sense of justice.
“Equity”, says Maine, “is an informal method of making new law or altering old law, depending on intrinsic fairness or equality of treatment”. Here the judge is guided by what the old writers called the law of nature or the law of nations, that is, his reason and sense of justice.
6. Legislation
Legislation is the most modern, the most prolific and the most important source of laws now-a-days. Custom, religion and other earlier sources of law are unable to cope with the fast changing and complex conditions, needs and relations of the modern life and society. Hence the State, i.e. the legal sovereign has itself assumed the duty of making new laws, or amending or repealing the old ones. In democratic and representative governments, this function is performed by the legislature or the law-making organ of the government. The number of laws made by it is now so great that they form the bulk of the code of laws of a modern country. Even customs and religious laws are incorporated into the legislative enactments or laws. The laws made by the legislature are called statutes.