Scots law

Scots Law (or Scottish Law) is the Law of Scotland.

After the Union with England, Scotland retained its unique legal system. The Scottish system is based on the Roman law or civil law, the English inspired common law and native custom. Unlike most civil law jurisdictions, Scots law is uncodified.

Legal System

Civilian or Saxon?

Scotland has a pluralistic legal system, comperable to that of Quebec, Louisiana and South Africa. The origins of the Scottish legal system stem from a conscious effort to import the Civilian legal tradition of continental Europe, as a means of repelling the influence of English law. This was due to a number of Scottish scholars who studied in the great law schools of Europe such as William Elphinstone, who later went on to found the University of Aberdeen for the purpose of spreading the Civilian tradition. Nevertheless, history has meant that English law has made its way into the Scottish system (Sale of Goods law, among others), particularly following the Act of Union.

Not Proven Verdict

The Scots Legal system is unique in have three possible verdicts for a criminal trial: "guilty", ""not guilty" and "not proven". Both "not guilty" and "not proven" result in an acquittal with no possibility of retrial. The third verdict resulted from historical accident, in that there was a practice at one point of leaving the jury to determine factual issues one-by-one as "proven" or "not proven". It was then left to the judge to pronounce upon the facts found "proven" whether this was sufficient to establish guilt of the crime charged. Now the jury decides this question after legal advice from the judge, but the "not proven" verdict lives on. The "not proven" verdict is often taken by juries and the media as meaning "we know he did it but there isn't enough proof".

Feudal law

The feudal system lingered on in Scots law on land ownership, so that a landowner as a vassal still had obligations to a feudal superior including payment of feu duty. This enabled developers to impose perpetual conditions dictating how buildings had to be constructed and maintained, but added complications and became abused to demand payments from vassals who wanted to make minor changes. In 1974 legislation began a process of redeeming feuduties so that most of these payments were ended, but it was only with the attention of the Scottish Parliament that a series of acts were passed to end the disadvantages while keeping the benefits of the system, the first in 2000, for The Abolition of Feudal Tenure on November 28 2004.

It is worth noting that Feudal law has never existed in the Islands of Orkney and Shetland, but rather use a system called Udal law, owing to their historic ties to Norway.

Courts in Increasing Order of Superiority

• Criminal Courts
  • District Court
  • Sheriff Court
  • High Court of Justiciary
• Civil Courts
  • Sheriff Court
  • Court of Session
    • Outer House
    • Inner House
  • House of Lords

See also

• List of Leading Scottish Legal Cases
• English law (also applies to Wales)
• European Union Law
• List of United Kingdom topics
• Udal Law
• Feudal law

External links

• Scottish Courts Website Details of Scottish courts and caselaw.
• Law Society of Scotland The Law Society organizes solicitors, who are 95% of all Scottish lawyers. Its site has a very good section headed 'What is Scots law'.
• Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates organizes advocates, who are the elite 5% of Scottish lawyers including QCs.
• Scottish Law Commission The Scottish Law Commission is in charge of proposlas for law reform in Scotland. This site has many discussions of the law as it stands and proposals for reform.
• Jonathan Mitchell QC Material on how to use advocates, jurisdiction of Scottish courts, freedom of information, and much else. Weekly update of most recent cases decided in Court of Session.
• Govan Law Centre Material on welfare law in Scotland.
• Scottish Legal Aid Board Material on how to get legal aid in Scotland.
• Scots Law News Well-kept Scottish law blog with news of current developments