John W. Cairns

Adam Smith and the Role of the Courts in Securing Justice and Liberty

Adam Smith wrote in the The Wealth of Nations that: ‘The second duty of the sovereign, [is] that of protecting, as far as possible, every member of the society from the injustice or oppression of every other member of it, or the duty of establishing an exact administration of justice …,’1 He had made similar remarks to his moral philosophy class in Glasgow in his Lectures on Jurisprudence, though there making the maintenance of justice the ‘first and chief design of every system of government’.2 Smith returned to the point in the final chapter of the Wealth of Nations, where he commented:

Rhetoric, Language and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Education in law in the Scottish universities has a continuous history only from the early eighteenth century. In 1707, the regius professorship of public law and the law of nature and nations was founded in Edinburgh, to be followed in 1710 and 1722 by professorships in civil (Roman) and Scots law respectively. In the University of Glasgow, the regius professorship of civil law was established in late 1713 and first filled in 1714. These developments were not entirely novel. Throughout the seventeenth century, there had been regular, if unsuccessful, attempts to create university chairs in law. While the background to the foundation of the university chairs requires further careful study, we may note that, by at least around 1690, it was thought desirable to introduce the teaching of both civil and Scots law, though the notion of teaching both does go back at least as far as the First Book of Discipline of 1561. After the visitation of the University of Edinburgh that resulted from the political and religious settlements of 1688–89, it was proposed to establish a single professorship to teach both civil and Scots law. This proposal in the late seventeenth century is in line with general developments throughout Europe. Nothing, however, was done, probably because no person or body was willing to finance a chair.

Institutional writings in Scotland reconsidered

(1984). Institutional writings in Scotland reconsidered. The Journal of Legal History: Vol. 4, New Perspectives in Scottish Legal History, pp. 76-117.

Beyond Dogmatics: Law and Society in the Roman World

CONTENTS Preface List of Contributors List of Abbreviations DEBATES AND CONTEXTS Introduction: Themes and Literature J . Cairns and P J du Plessis 1 Law and Society A Watson LAW AND EMPIRE 2 Legal Pluralism and the Roman Empires K Tuori 3 Diplomatics, Law and Romanization in the Documents from the Judaean Desert E A Meyer LAW CODES AND CODIFICATION 4 Roman Law Codes and the Roman Legal Tradition J Harries 5 Diocletian and the Efficacy of Public Law R Rees DEATH, ECONOMICS AND SUCCESSION 6 The Dutiful Legatee: Pliny, Letters V.1 A D E Lewis 7 The Hereditability of Locatio Conductio P J du Plessis COMMERCE AND LAW 8 Dealing with the Abyss: the Nature and Purpose of the Rhodian Sea-Law on Jettison (Lex Rhodia de Iactu, D 14.2) and the Making of Justinians Digest J-J Aubert 9 Suing the Paterfamilias: Theory and Practice D Johnston PROCEDURE 10 Lawsuits in Context E Metzger 11 The Role of Delators O F Robinson Index.

Thomas Craig, Sir Martin Wright, and Sir William Blackstone: The English Discovery of Feudalism

Abstract F.W. Maitland claimed that Sir Martin Wright propagated among English lawyers the view that English law had a feudal origin and was part of a European family of law and that Wrights opinions were popularized by Blackstone. This article demonstrates that Wrights opinions on feudal law, its history, and its impact on English law owed a considerable amount to the Scottish author Thomas Craig, who, through Wright, Blackstone, and others, as well as independently, had a significant impact on English lawyers’ understanding of their legal history and in overturning theories of the ‘immemorial’ nature of the common law. The infusion of Craigs European learning on feudalism into discussion of English law helped English legal history to develop.

After Somerset: The Scottish Experience

The Scottish evidence examined here demonstrates the power of the popular understanding that, in Somersets Case (1772), Lord Mansfield had freed the slaves, and shows how the rapid spread of this view through newspapers, magazines, and more personal communications, encouraged those held as slaves in Scotland to believe that Lord Mansfield had freed them – at least if they reached England.

Advocates’ Hats, Roman Law and Admission to the Scots Bar, 1580–1812

Abstract The final ceremony for admission as an advocate before the College of Justice in Scotland formerly was the delivery of a speech in Latin on a text of the Corpus iuris civilis from a corner of the bench. The intrant advocate wore a hat for this ceremony. This article discusses the procedures for admission as an advocate to argue that the ritual of wearing a hat had a symbolic meaning central to the aspirations of the Faculty of Advocates. Eventually misunderstood, the ceremony was dispensed with in the early nineteenth century.

Adam Smith’s Lectures on Jurisprudence: Their Influence on Legal Education

On 8 January 1760, on a motion made before the Faculty of Advocates (the Scottish bar), the Faculty passed a resolution, noting that regular lectures were given in the University of Edinburgh on the law of nature and nations, expressing confidence in the professor of that subject, and recommending all those who intended to become ‘candidates for the office of Advocate, to apply to the study of the law of Nature and Nations’, because ‘it concerns the honour of the Faculty that their members should be versant in every part of polite Literature and particularly in the law of Nature and Nations, the fountain of Justice and equity.’1 After noting on 5 January 1762 that this resolution had not been adhered to, and establishing a committee to consider how to make it effective, on 24 November the Faculty resolved as follows: The Dean and Faculty of Advocates considering that they by their Resolution dated 8th January 1760 recommended it to all young Gentlemen who intended to offer themselves Candidates for the office of Advocate to apply to the study of the Law of Nature and Nations, And considering that it concerns the Honour of the Faculty that their members should be versant in every part of polite literature and more particularly in those parts of Learning which are immediately connected with Roman Law and the Law of Scotland. They therefore recommend to the private Examinators in both Branches of the Law from and after the twelfth Day of June next to examine Candidates upon the Law of Nature and Nations in so far as it is connected with the Civil Law or the Law of this Country. And they hereby appoint That a Copy of this their Resolution to be sent to all the professors in the University of Edinburgh in order that the same may be intimated to the Students at their respective Colleges.2