Preface

Part I: The Origins of the Scottish Common Law to c.1230
1. From Legal Diversity to Some Legal Commonality

Part II: The Consolidation of the Common Law, c.1230-ca.1450
2. The Brieves (Part One)
3. The Brieves (Part Two)
4. 'Crimes'
5. Law and Order in the Highlands and Islands

Part III: The Transformation of the Scottish Common Law, c.1450-c.1580
6. The Jurisdiction of the Session
7. Legal Learning and Legal Authority in the College of Justice
8. Reformation, Revolution and the Legal System
9. The Learned Authority of Scots Law
10. Legal Learning and the Power of Parliament

Part IV: Regal Union with England, c.1580-1707
11. Authority and Government in the Scottish Reign of James VI
12. Authority and Government after 1603
13. Interregnum or Republic in the 1650s
14. Legal Literature
15. Legal Authority and the Learned Laws
16. Legal Authority of Scottish Sources
17. Advocates in the Court of Session and Inferior Jurisdictions in Aberdeen
18. Advocates, Witches and Judicial Torture
19. Revolution and Union

Index

The first of two essential student volumes exploring current perspectives in Scottish legal history The discipline of Scottish legal history involves the study of a complex mixture of history, power, place and people. This accessible and readable volume sets out to survey the current state of the subject and engages with wide-ranging debates and contexts within the wider European setting. The roots of a law commonly applicable amongst all subjects of the Scottish king can be traced to the 1100s. How and why did that law come into being? How was it used in dispute resolution during the medieval and early modern periods? Furthermore, how did its authority develop over the centuries and inform the modern laws of Scotland? This volume explores such questions and introduces readers to the history of the Scottish legal system prior to 1707, the year of parliamentary union with England. The volume is split into four chronological periods: The Origins of the Scottish Common Law to c. 1230 The Consolidation of the Common Law, c. 1230-c. 1450 The Transformation of the Scottish Common Law and the Session, c. 1450-c. 1580 Regal Union with England, c. 1580-1707 Volume Two examines how that union and a range of other factors shaped the law used in Scotland today. Key Features ● The first of a two-volume Scottish legal history written for both students and for wider academic reference ● Division of material into easily digestible sections and into broad historical periods ● Perspective from legal history (rather than political, social or economic history) ● Use of individual case studies to clarify technical aspects of legal history Andrew R. C. Simpson and Adelyn L. M. Wilson are both Lecturers in Law at the University of Aberdeen. Cover image: The Old Tolbooth. Engraving based on an eighteenth-century painting by Alexander Naysmith, image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons Cover design: [EUP logo] edinburghuniversitypress.com ISBN (cover): 978-0-7486-9740-3 ISBN (PPC): 978-0-7486-9739-7 Barcode

Andrew R C Simpson holds the Chair of Scottish Legal History at the University of Edinburgh. His research focuses on medieval and early modern Scottish legal history. For ten years he was an academic member of staff at the School of Law in the University of Aberdeen, where he taught a wide range of subjects, including Foundations of Private law, Property law, Scottish Legal History, Comparative law, Succession and Trusts and Corporeal Moveable Property (Honours). He has also taught annually as a visting lecturer in Comparative law at the University of Bergen in Norway since 2015.