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CS Executive · Jurisprudence, Interpretation and General Laws · Sources of Law

A High Court judge, while deciding a dispute, relies on a standard textbook by a renowned jurist to understand an unsettled principle, though the book is not binding. In Salmond's scheme, the textbook is best classified as:

The textbook is a historical source of law. It has no binding authority on courts and merely influences how law develops, whereas legal sources such as statutes and precedents are directly recognised and enforced by courts.

  1. AA historical source of lawCorrect
  2. BA legal source of law
  3. CA formal source of law
  4. DA statutory source of law

Explanation

A textbook has no binding authority, so it is not a legal or formal source. It influences the development of law only indirectly and is therefore a historical source. A distractor treating it as a legal source wrongly assumes courts must follow it.

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