The most important contributions toward this object were first offered by von Bulow.46 The significance of his position must be sought not only in the fact that he first attacked the dogma, uncontroverted theretofore, according to which the courts had nothing to do with lawmaking, but especially in his scientific exposition of judicial law, which he declares to be a command of the State establishing rules of law.47 In this manner he has tried to investigate and expound the significance of judicial law as supplementary to statutory law.

45 Comp. the very apt remarks of Neukamp, in "Juristisches Litera-turblatt," vol. 20, p. 146.

46 "Gesetz und Richteramt," pp. 35 seq., 45 seq.

47 Comp. also his "Gestandnisrecht" (1899), pp. 130 seq.; and "Heitere und ernste Betrachtungen uber die Rechtswissenschaft" (1901), passim.

Official legal science, however, has quietly passed by this exceedingly valuable essay. It was but quite recently that his ideas found appreciation and were further developed,48 but such appreciation means an acknowledgment, scientifically and officially, that there is such a thing as courts making law, and that the supplying of gaps by adjudication is one of the sources of law.49

A detailed discussion of these propositions would exceed the limits of space at present at my disposal. Consequently I leave to some other occasion their utilization for an elaborate theory of legal sources. Yet I may be permitted to sketch the outlines of the correct method of studying the manner of applying the law.