Tuesday, July 17, 2018

Simpson and Wilson's "Scottish Legal History"

We have, much too belatedly, noticed the publication of Scottish Legal History: Volume 1: 1000-1707, by Andrew R. C. Simpson and Adelyn L.M. Wilson, both Lecturers in Law at the University of Aberdeen.  The publisher, Edinburgh University Press, calls it the “first textbook on Scottish legal history from the genesis of Scots law to the Union, written from a legal perspective."
From the roots of a law that applied to all subjects of the Scottish King to the 1707 Union with England, this new legal history textbook explores the genesis, evolution and enduring influence of early Scots law. Discover how and why Scots law come into being, how was it used in dispute resolution during the medieval and early modern periods and how its authority developed over the centuries.
“Textbooks are rarely page-turners,” Paul J. du Plessis, University of Edinburgh, writes in a recent review, “but this one indeed is.”  TOC after the jump.
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