A collection of articles on themes of Roman law, Scots law and legal history arranged in five groups. The first deals with problems in the Roman law of property and obligations, including three articles on transfer by delivery or traditio and others on the controversial date of the lex Aquilia, depositum irregulare, the actio de posito and agency in Roman law. The second ranges over medieval interpretations of Roman texts and their application, producing surprising results, the use or apparent use of Roman law in a particular case and the way in which Roman law has been followed but adapted in ... More

A collection of articles on themes of Roman law, Scots law and legal history arranged in five groups. The first deals with problems in the Roman law of property and obligations, including three articles on transfer by delivery or traditio and others on the controversial date of the lex Aquilia, depositum irregulare, the actio de posito and agency in Roman law. The second ranges over medieval interpretations of Roman texts and their application, producing surprising results, the use or apparent use of Roman law in a particular case and the way in which Roman law has been followed but adapted in relation to servitudes, quasi-delicts and risk in sale, where it has been followed not entirely appropriately in sale of land. The third group takes up a variety of issues in Scottish legal history – discrimination against women, the important law commission chaired by George Joseph Bell and the curious history of the law on variation and discharge of land obligations, Stair’s use of Grotius and other sources and early legal records, including the Registrum referred to in Balfour’s Practicks. The fourth group deals with the general influence of the Civil and Canon law on the law both of England and Scotland and with the influence partly transmitted by French writers. The final group looks at Scotland as a mixed jurisdiction, the Europeanisation of law and the force and limits of legal tradition. The book concludes with a list of the author’s publications up to 2004.