Historical Sources - These include mercantile, customs, religious beliefs, ideas of reasonableness, natural justice, conscience and public policy together with the opinions and reports of Royal Commissions and research groups. Secondly - another way of considering sources of law is to divide them up into primary and secondary sources. It is this classification of sources of law which I intend to follow in this lecture. Primary sources of law consist of rules of law themselves, whereas secondary sources of law are a second-hand account of those rules. An illustration of this is that statute is a primary source of law, whilst a textbook summarising the principles of law in the statute is a secondary source of law.
Statutes are laws made by parliament.
In this connection, delegated legislation is law made by some person or body to whom parliament has by statute delegated law-making authority. Statute is the superior type of law because it overrides common law. Because delegated legislation is authorised by statute it can also override common law. It may also be known as Acts, or Acts of Parliament - the two terms are now synonymous. Enactment is another term used for Act or statute - it can also include delegated legislation.