Legislation as a Source of Law:
In modern times, legislation is considered as the most important source of law. The term
'legislation' is derived from the Latin word “legis” which means 'law' and latum which
means "to make" or "set". Therefore, the word 'legislation' means the 'making of law'. The
importance of legislation as a source of law can be measured from the fact that it is backed
by the authority of the sovereign, and it is directly enacted and recognised by the State. The
expression 'legislation' has been used in various senses. It includes every method of
lawmaking. In the strict sense, it means laws enacted by the sovereign or any other person
or institution authorised by him.
Kinds of Legislation:
The chart below explains the types of legislation:
1. Supreme Legislation: When the laws are directly enacted by the sovereign, it is
considered as supreme legislation. One of the features of Supreme legislation is that no
other authority except the sovereign itself can control or check it. The laws enacted by
the British Parliament fall in this category, as the British Parliament is considered as
sovereign. The law enacted by the Indian Parliament also falls in the same category.
However, in India, powers of the Parliament are regulated and controlled by the
Constitution, through the laws enacted by it are not under the control of any other
legislative body.
2. Subordinate Legislation: Subordinate legislation is a legislation which is made by any
authority which is subordinate to the supreme or sovereign authority. It is enacted under
the delegated authority of the sovereign. The origin, validity, existence and continuance
of such legislation totally depends on the will of the sovereign authority. Subordinate
legislation further can be classified into the following types:
a. Autonomous Law: When a group of individuals recognized or incorporated under
the law as an autonomous body, is conferred with the power to make rules and
regulation, the laws made by such body fall under autonomous law. For instance,
laws made by the bodies like Universities, incorporated companies etc. fall in this
category of legislation.
b. Judicial Rules: In some countries, the judiciary is conferred with the power to make
rules for their administrative procedures. For instance, under the Constitution of
India, the Supreme Court and High Courts have been conferred with such kinds of
power to regulate procedure and administration.
c. Local laws: In some countries, local bodies are recognized and conferred with the
law-making powers. They are entitled to make bye-laws in their respective
jurisdictions. In India, local bodies like Panchayats and Municipal Corporations
have been recognized by the Constitution through the 73rd and 74th Constitutional
amendments. The rules and bye-laws enacted by them are examples of local laws.
d. Colonial Law: Laws made by colonial countries for their colonies or the countries
controlled by them are known as colonial laws. For a long time, India was governed
by the laws passed by the British Parliament. However, as most countries of the
world have gained independence from the colonial powers, this legislation is losing
its importance and may not be recognized as a kind of legislation.
e. Laws made by the Executive: Laws are supposed to be enacted by the sovereign
and the sovereignty may be vested in one authority or it may be distributed among
the various organs of the State.
In most of the modern States, sovereignty is generally divided among the three
organs of the State. The three organs of the State namely legislature, executive and
judiciary are vested with three different functions. The prime responsibility of
lawmaking vests with the legislature, while the executive is vested with the
responsibility to implement the laws enacted by the legislature. However, the
legislature delegates some of its law-making powers to executive organs which are
also termed delegated legislation.
Delegated legislation is also a class of subordinate legislation. In welfare and
modern states, the amount of legislation has increased manifold and it is not possible
for legislative bodies to go through all the details of the law. Therefore, it deals with
only a fundamental part of the legislation and wide discretion has been given to the
executive to fill the gaps. This increasing tendency of delegated legislation has been
criticized. However, delegated legislation is resorted to, on account of reasons like
paucity of time, technicalities of law and emergency. Therefore, delegated
legislation is sometimes considered as a necessary evil.
