first place it is only through statutes that existing laws can be abrogated. Precedent and custom can only establish new law where none before existed. They can only provide rules to fill up the gaps in the legal system. By statutes, however, new rules may not only be established, but old ones abolished. As new conditions require changed laws, these changes are achieved only through legislation. For example, where states find common-law pleading too antiquated to be useful and effective, they replace it by adopting statutory rules, known as codes. So where the common-law disability of married women was found to be unpopular and unwise it was eliminated by legislative enactment. Since most important laws of today require changes or alteration in the established legal rules, legislation is becoming of increasing importance.

The second reason for the great importance of. legislation is that it anticipates the cases before they arise and may deal comprehensibly with all the phases of the question involved, while precedent can not produce a legal rule until a case for its application actually arises and then it must be limited to the bare necessities of the individual case, for it is a rule of precedent that the courts must not lay down new principles of law except such as are necessary to the decision of the case. If the decision goes beyond these narrow limits, it is but mere dicta. The result is that precedent creates law by piecemeal, at different times and through different judges and, therefore, that such law is likely to be fragmentary and unorganized.

The final reason for the modern importance of legislation is that it makes possible a careful division of labor in the formation of new legal principles. This division of labor is especially necessary in much of

what is known as modern social legislation. For example, to establish a set of legal rules adequately dealing with the problem of Workmen's Compensation requires an expert, technical knowledge of the details of modern industry, of dangerous machinery and methods of its safeguarding, of industrial diseases, their causes and their cures, and numerous other questions which are involved and which can be secured only through the co-operation of expert investigators in the different subjects. Obviously such a law can be effectively and scientifically formulated only by a large deliberative body whose members represent the different points of view of modern life, and where the machinery of modern investigation and research is made available. For these reasons legislation is the most powerful, the most important and the most effective source of modern law.

§ 30. Origin and nature of general customs.— Customs are either general or particular. General customs form one of the legal sources of the common law. It is a matter of historical observation that long before any supreme political authority has come. into being a series of practical rules determine the main relations of family life, the conditions of ownership, the punishment of the more violent forms of moral wrongdoing, and the adjustment of contracts. The mode in which such rules are formulated seems to be the following: A spontaneous practice is first followed, and if good and useful, is generally copied over and over again, the more so as habit and association always render the imitation of an old and familiar practice easier than inventing a new and untried one. It is the peculiarity of the class of customs which are the true germs of future law that they are being constantly brought to mind and tested by application to actions. Customs prescribing the formalities and conditions of marriage are brought into distinct consciousness on the formation of every fresh family. The incessantly active vicissitudes of birth and death in every community call for an un

intermittent series of decisions upon the competing claims of survivors in matters of ownership, and upon the responsibilities of those who may already be called "personal representatives" in matters of contract. The main machinery for the conversion of desultory and uncertain customs into fixed rules are the decisions which are constantly demanded for the purpose of ascertaining the nature and extent of an alleged custom. These decisions may be made by a casually selected arbitrator, a village council, or any man or body of men agreed upon, or any person who may have authority to hear the matter. The grounds of decision may be personal mercy, expediency or analogy. Such decisions tend to crystalize and solidify until they frequently become as certain and definite as the rules of established law.

§ 31. General customs as legal sources of the law. -A general custom is defined as being such a usage as by common consent and uniform practice has become the law of the place, or of the subject-matter to which it relates. A particular custom is distinguished from a general custom in this, that the latter is universal, while the former is particular to this or that place or group. It is distinguished from usage in this, that custom is the rule of which usage is the legal evidence. The difference between prescription and custom is that while prescription is the making of a right, custom is the making of a law. General customs are such as constitute a legal source of the common law and extend to the whole country; particular customs are those which are confined to a particular district or to the members of a particular class. The existence of the former is to be determined by the court, of the latter by the jury. General

customs are said to be legal sources of the law: (a) where they have existed time out of mind; (b) have been uninterrupted; (c) have been peaceably enjoyed or acquiesced in; (d) are reasonable; (e) are certain; (f) are considered compulsory by those to whom they apply; (g) are consistent with statute law and the established rules of the common law. Such customs as possess the foregoing requisites, being legal sources of the law, like statutes create rights and duties which the courts will recognize and apply in their administration of justice. In other words, binding authority is attributed to those customs meeting the specified requirements.

§ 32. Decreasing importance of custom as a legal source. The legal requirements of a valid custom are so exacting that its law-creative efficacy is almost eliminated today. Few customs are found that conform to the requirements. Originally custom was probably the most important and fruitful source of law, but the great number of precedents and the rapidly increasing bulk of legislation necessarily restricts. custom as a legal source within very narrow limits.

§ 33. Particular customs.-Particular or special customs, applying only to particular callings or places, do not constitute legal sources. They are given a certain legal effect, however, by, being incorporated into agreements between parties who have dealt with reference to them. Usages, which are plainly repugnant to wellknown rules of law, are not recognized and can not be proved. Customs of trade are proved to show the intention of parties in making contracts. But customs of trade can not be enforced against a stranger who is ignorant of them. For instance, a merchant can not