one of the maine triangles of the lawes of England; these lawes being divided into common law, statute law and customs."[1] Here common law and custom are thought of as distinct. Not so, however, Blackstone: “This unwritten or Common Law is properly distinguishable into three kinds: (1) General customs, which are the universal rule of the whole Kingdom, and form the Common Law, in its stricter and more usual signification. (2) Particular customs, which for the most part affect only the inhabitants of particular districts. (3) Certain particular laws, which by custom are adopted and used by some particular courts of pretty general and extensive jurisdiction."[2]
Undoubtedly the creative energy of custom in the development of common law is less today than it was in bygone times.[3] Even in bygone
- ↑ Coke on Littleton, 62a; Post v. Pearsall, 22 Wend. 440.
- ↑ Blackstone, Comm., pp. 67, 68; Gray, "Nature and Sources of the Law," p. 266, sec. 598; Sadler, "The Relation of Custom to Law," p. 59.
- ↑ Cf. Gray, supra, sec. 634; Salmond, "Jurisprudence," p. 143; Gény, op. cit., vol. I, p. 324, sec. 111.
