Scottish Legal History Volume One: 1000-1707

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?

Volume One 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

Key Features:-

• The first of a two-volume Scottish legal history written both for 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