Gautam jayasuryaRoll no: 339

Acc. to the historical school of law, sources of law meant the material from which law derives its content.

The principles of law are absolute, eternal, and of universal validity, and that law is found.

The people's theory that law is simply a conscious product of the human will which tends to produce satisfactory solutions.

To the people law is law because the State, reflecting their desires, has so willed.

The people themselves as the authors of all constitutions and limitations and the final judges of their meaning and effect.

The professional duty of jurists and legislators is to embody the popular will.

Savigny, the founder of historical school. The reality of law has its existence in

common consciousness of the people.( Volkgiest)

Spontaneous evolution + natural spirit + Social pressure = The foundation of law

Evolution in an organic manner. Law has to support the ever changing

practical needs of the people.

Established patterns of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting.

Considered to be the part of ‘Found Law’. The ground of authority for the common

law is its status as longstanding and generally accepted custom.

Customs corresponds to modern social notions of evolution of law.

Hindu Marriage Act, 1955 – Code of Manu

Blackstone’s declaratory theory states that the judge is not delegated to pronounce a new law, but to maintain and expound the old one.

Judges must decide not according to their own private judgment but according to the known laws and customs of the land.

The impotence of legislatures in the face of the restraints imposed by the Volksgeist foreshadows modern recognition of the social and psychological limits of effective legal action.

Analytical school of law1. Austin’s sources of law Sovereign and supreme legislature is the

author of all laws. Courts of law constitute a source of law

as far as their decisions have binding character.

Savigny did not oppose the introduction of new laws, or even a new system of laws, but only objected to the proposed codification on the ground that there was great risk of the so-called natural law, with its "infinite arrogance" and its "shallow philosophy" ruining such a scheme.

The dual concern with analytical and historical school gave rise to a new discipline called comparative jurisprudence.

Sir Henry Maine, propounded this new branch in the study of law which combines influence of the analogy of social evolution and highlights of the analytical school of law.