The Scottish Legal System

A course on the Scottish legal system is a compulsory part of undergraduate degrees in Scots Law. The Scottish Legal System sets out to present the 'legal system and law of Scotland as a unique and constantly changing human enterprise' and places the Scottish legal system in its broader political and social contexts. This is achieved by covering not only the central aspects of the system, such as the courts and the legal profession, but also the border areas with constitutional law and jurisprudence. This new sixth edition includes new case law on devolution and human rights issues in Scotland. This well established text provides an up-to-date treatment of all significant developments affecting the Scottish legal system.

European law, including both civil law and common law, has gone through several major phases of expansion in the world. European legal history thus also is a history of legal transplants and cultural borrowings, which national legal histories as products of nineteenth-century historicism have until recently largely left unconsidered. The Handbook of European Legal History supplies its readers with an overview of the different phases of European legal history in the light of today's state-of-the-art research, by offering cutting-edge views on research questions currently emerging in international discussions. The Handbook takes a broad approach to its subject matter both nationally and systemically. Unlike traditional European legal histories, which tend to concentrate on "heartlands" of Europe (notably Italy and Germany), the Europe of the Handbook is more versatile and nuanced, taking into consideration the legal developments in Europe's geographical "fringes" such as Scandinavia and Eastern Europe. The Handbook covers all major time periods, from the ancient Greek law to the twenty-first century. Contributors include acknowledged leaders in the field as well as rising talents, representing a wide range of legal systems, methodologies, areas of expertise and research agendas.

Whether youOCOre studying Law in Scotland or looking to convert to Scots law, this invaluable guide will quickly equip you with all the basics of the Scottish legal system. Fully updated for the third edition, it is the ideal textbook for busy law students and revising for those all-important exams. Summary sections of Essentials Facts and Essential Cases will help you to identify, understand and remember the key elements of the subject."e;

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This detailed introduction to the study of Scots law sets out the background to Scots law, the materials of legal study and the methods of working, providing students with the knowledge they need in order to study the specialist branches of the law effectively. It also acts as a useful reference tool for non-lawyers seeking information on the Scottish legal system. Comprehensively updated and revised throughout, the 8th edition takes full account of major legislative changes and developments, with an extensive examination of the Scottish Parliament, and its executive departments and agencies, including those of the Scottish Executive. The Human Rights Act 1998 is discussed and developments in EU law are taken into account.

Scots law and the legal institutions of Scotland are markedly different to that in the rest of the UK, determined by its own distinctive history and its relationship with other legal systems. Written in plain English for non-lawyers, this publication examines the Scottish legal system post-devolution, covering a range of topics including: the origins and sources of Scots law; the judicial system; civil courts and civil judicial procedure; tribunals; criminal courts and the criminal justice system; legal personnel including judges and sheriffs, public prosecutors and the legal profession; the administration of the Scottish legal system; judicial review; legal aid and other sources of assistance.

This book is the first monograph to analyse the workings of Scotland’s legal profession in its early modern European context. It is a comprehensive survey of lawyers working in the local and central courts; investigating how they interacted with their clients and with each other, the legal principles governing ethical practice, and how they fulfilled a social role through providing free services to the poor and also services to town councils and other corporations. Based heavily on a wide range of archival sources, and reflecting the contemporary importance of local societies of lawyers, John Finlay offers a groundbreaking yet accessible study of the eighteenth-century legal profession which adds a new dimension to our knowledge of Enlightenment Scotland.

In the present era of internationalisation of law, being able to analyse legal culture enables legal cooperation. However, legal culture is still more a theoretical concept than an analytical tool applied when approaching law. There are many kinds of legal cultures, concerning different groups of legal actors or covering different geographical areas, and they are at times overlapping. However, the national legal culture is still the one that has the largest influence on the everyday life of citizens and the day-to-day work of lawyers. In this book, the editors first theorize on and give practical guidance on how to identify, deconstruct and examine legal culture. Based on a common analytical framework, the editors and a large number of expert contributors explore central institutional and intellectual features of legal culture in 12 European countries next to USA, China and Australia allowing the reader to systematically compare legal cultures.This is the second and extended version of Comparing Legal Cultures, which is the first thorough and extensive book that analyses national legal cultures as an approach to comparative law.