According to Salmond:

Legal

Material

Historical
Sources of law

Formal The Will of

the State
Continues…
• Legal Sources are of different Kinds:
• Legislation
• Precedent
• Custom
• Agreement
• Professional Opinion
Formal Source
• Formal source:
The source from which a rule of law derives its force and validity. It is
the will of the State, as manifested in statutes or decisions of the
courts. For example, if the law is the command of the sovereign, then
such sovereign is the formal source. If the law is valid because it is the
product of an inner sense of right, then such a sense of right is the
source of law. If the law is valid because it is the product of custom,
then the habits of the people are the source of the law.
Material Source
• Material Source: It is related to the matter of the law itself, not
to the validity of the law.
There are two kinds of material sources:
• Legal: Legal sources are authoritative. They are allowed by the courts as of rights.
They are basically the instruments or organs of the State by which legal rules are
created.
• Historical: Historical sources are sources where rules, subsequently turned into legal
principles, were first to be found in an unauthoritative form. They are not allowed by
law Courts as of right. For example, one can say that both Acts of Parliament and the
works of Bentham are material sources of English law. Yet, whereas, the acts of
Parliament become law forthwith and automatically, what Bentham says, may or
may not become law, and even if it does, it does so, not as a matter of right, but
because of its acceptance by the legislature or the judiciary.
There are five kinds of Legal Sources.

• Legislation: Law that has its origin in legislation is called enacted law. It is also
called statute law.
• Precedent: It establishes the law by the recognition and application of new rules
by the Courts themselves in the administration of justice. Precedents produce
case laws.
• Custom: Custom is to society what law is to the State. Each is the expression and
realization, to the measure of men’s insight and ability, of the principles of right
and justice.
• Agreement: The terms of the agreement constitute conventional law for the
parties. A rule of civil law may be overridden by a treaty between two nations.
• Professional opinion: professional opinion of eminent jurists may be called
juristic law. The classic works of legal scholars have also been treated influentially
as a source of law.