Custom (law)
Custom in law is the established pattern of behavior that can be objectively verified within a particular social setting. A claim can be carried out in defense of "what has always been done and accepted by law." Customary law exists where:
- a certain legal practice is observed and
- the relevant actors consider it to be law (opinio juris).
Related is the idea of prescription; a right enjoyed through long custom rather than positive law.
Read more about Custom (law): Customary Law and Codification, International Law, Customary Law Within Contemporary Legal Systems, Custom in Torts, Custom Law in India, Customary Legal Systems
Famous quotes containing the word custom:
“Cannibalism to a certain moderate extent is practised among several of the primitive tribes in the Pacific, but it is upon the bodies of slain enemies alone; and horrible and fearful as the custom is, immeasurably as it is to be abhorred and condemned, still I assert that those who indulge in it are in other respects humane and virtuous.”
—Herman Melville (1819–1891)