Legislation and litigation; comments on the development of industrial law.

It is usually suggested that the three great sources of our law are case law (in the sense of the " common " law), equity, and legislation, and that, historically, this is the order of their coming; first the common law, then equity, then parliamentary legislation. But, though it contains truth, such a view is too simple. It is too commonly imagined that the common law relates to something in the past which has yielded place, under the strain of modern conditions, to a much more rapid and efficient system of law making by parliament and executive. In fact, on the one hand, the common law is still with us-still creatively with us-and on the other, legislation has had a decisive influence in certain fields for seven hundred to eight hundred years. Indeed, as has been pointed out by Ilbert (1901) 1