Sources of law

1) Constitution- It is the ultimate source of law.Its authority lies in the political fact that it has been so accepted by the people.Constitution differs from other legislations.It may be the fundamental law of the land or it may simply be a political document.Its provisions lay down binding rules violation of which can be checked and remedied through court action.In countries like former USSR and China it simply lay down the rules for the guidance of the governance and its violation can be checked only at the political level.
2) Legislation-Most Important and biggest source of law.Legislation is divided into Supreme and Subordinate ( delegated legislation).
Supreme legislation derives its power directly from the Constitution.Delegated Legislation proceeds from an authority which derives its power from the supreme legislation.Egs of the former kind are Acts of parliament,ordinances and law made by the president and the governor.Laws made by various authorities like corporations,municipalities,universities,government department under the authority of the supreme legislation are subordinate legislation.
One limitation being that supreme legislation cannot delegate the “essential legislative functions” to any other body.Also,it cannot delegate its legislative functions to an unlimited extent.

3) Precedent- It constitutes a very important source of law.It means the use of past decisions as guides in the moulding of future decisions. Salmond ,”the making of law by the recognition and application of new rules by the courts themselves in ,,the administration of justice”.Legislation vs precedent , Legislation is a formal declaration of law in abstract while in precedent law is created by its application to a specific situation.Legislation is of general character and does not take into account the facts of any particular situation.Application of certain principles to specific fact situation is typical of precedent.Legislation is generally made for future tranactions.precedent is created with respect to past transactions and operates retrospectively.Law of torts, a creation of judges through their decisions.
However, finding law out of the long pronouncements of a judge is a very difficult process.What part of the judicial opinion or opinions constitute the precedent or makes law?salmond ,” A precedent is a judicial decision which contains in itself a principle.The underlying principle which thus forms its authoritative element is often termed the ratio decidendi.The concrete decision is binding between the parties to it, but it is the abstract ratio decidendi which alone has the force of law as regards the world at large.”It lays down a principle of general application not confined to the fact of a particular case constitute the precedent or ratio decidendi.obiter dicta, things said by the way without being relevant for the decision of the case where in they have been said.Courts conclusions on the material facts constitutes the ratio or the precedent and the rest is simply obiter.The ratio or the precedent is not set and known just by one decision or case but by a series of them.
For a successful operation of the doctrine of precedent as a source of law it is absolutely necessary that there should be a hierarchy of courts and a proper reporting of their decisions.article 141 law laid down by the Supreme Court is binding upon all the courts in India.The Supreme court is not bound by its own decisions,or any other court,privy council or federal court.
All the high courts are bound by the decisions of the Supreme Courts as well as decisions of the privy council and the federal courts but they are not bound by its own decisions or a decision of another high court.
District or lower courts are bound by the precedent laid down by the supreme court or past decisions of the privy council and the federal court or the high court to which they are subordinate.Among the lower courts there is no system of precedents because their decisions are not published so not easily accessible.Supreme Court decisions are published in Supreme court reports,All India reports,supreme court journal,supreme court cases etc.High court decisions are published in the official Indian law reports series of each high court,all India reporter.

Legislation v. precedent
• Legislation generally has prospective effect,makes law for the future.Precedent makes law for the past transactions and applies it retrospectively.
• Legislation is more coherent and it is easier to get the law as compared to the difficulty in finding the precedent.
• Legislation is more certain than a precedent .
• Legislation is more easily accessible than the precedent .
• Legislation is rigid.It disregards need of individual justice.precedent has more justice content.
Custom
• Most ancient source of law.Though its importance is now diminishing with the growth of legislation and precedent.
• Custom means uniformity of conduct of people under like circumstances.
• You cannot have successful laws which are not part of the habits of the people.
• Multiplicity of customary law creates problem.
To acuire the force of law, custom must fulfil the following Conditions-
• Antiquity
• Reasonableness
• Conformity with statutory law
• Observance as of right
• Consistent with morality and public policy.