The College of Justice: Government and Governance in Renaissance Scotland

Studies the rationales for the institution of Scotland’s supreme civil court in the Renaissance.

• Situates the establishment of the College of Justice in 1532 in the context of Scottish Renaissance state formation, demonstrating its institutional significance
• Establishes that three major motives for the institution of the College of Justice were to reform the administration of Scottish civil justice, entrust the administration of the law to an institutionalised community of learned experts, and to establish the relationship between royal authority and the college as an incorporated sovereign court
• Explores the proposed role of the College of Justice in maintaining ecclesiastical privileges, understood in a ‘Gallican’ framework, on the eve of the Scottish Reformation
• Provides a detailed reassessment of the documentation relating to the institution of the College of Justice, in broadly the chronological order in which it was produced, enabling readers to discover the scheme as it developed over time
• Contains the first major prosopographical study of the first judges in the College of Justice, which serves to explain the nature of the institution within which they were incorporated

In 1532, James V instituted the College of Justice, an incorporated group of expert lawyers and administrators who were to exercise supreme Scottish civil jurisdiction. Why did he decide to do that? This book argues that the scheme was informed by a powerful sense of the role that an incorporated body of expert lawyers might serve in articulating a just law for the realm. The new institution also more fully defined the relationship between the king and his supreme judges, reflecting contemporary European thought. Furthermore, the new College of Justice was meant to have a significant role in connection with the government of the Scottish Catholic Church on the eve of the Reformation.

This account of the institution of the College of Justice serves as a case study of the powerful role of lawyers in state formation during the Renaissance. It will also be of interest to those who wish to understand the origins of a court that remains part of the Scottish legal landscape to this day.