The community of the realm in Scotland, 1249–1424
History, law and charters in a recreated kingdom
Legal Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland
by Alice Taylor,
COTR is hosting a two-day colloquium on Legal Culture in Medieval and Early Modern Scotland in Edinburgh on 16/17 December
It has long been recognised that Scots law transformed in the late medieval and early modern period, beginning with the development of the session, and followed by the foundation of the College of Justice, eventually prompting the emergence of the modern Scottish legal profession. While there has been pioneering work to demonstrate that the medieval period was not a legal 'dark age', there is still a profound sense of a procedural and jurisdictional disconnect between the medieval world of pleadable brieves, and the early modern world of the decisions of the College of Justice. But this sense of cleavage needs some clarification, particularly when thinking through the manuscript culture of Scottish law - medieval and early modern. These shed light on little studied aspects of legal culture legal knowledge, which make the medieval seem less unfamiliar and less disconnected. How did people think about and use law and legal concepts, and how did they conceptualise legal authority? Can we know what non-specialists did with and thought about law? Thinking about legal culture in a broad sense, then, as opposed to procedural and institutional change, may provide fruitful ways of thinking through legal knowledge, learning, expertise and authority in Scotland in a period of profound institutional and legal change. The aim therefore of this workshop is not only to view Scottish legal change over the longue durée but also to identify, where any exist, continuities in the forms of law, legal authority, and legal culture.
Speakers: Alice Taylor (KCL), John Reuben Davies (Glasgow), Hector MacQueen (Edinburgh), Andrew Simpson (Aberdeen), Lynn Kilgallon (Trinity College Dublin), Claire Hawes (Aberdeen), Cynthia Neville (Dalhousie, CA), Jackson Armstrong (Aberdeen), Amy Blakeway (st Andrews), Mark Godfrey (Glasgow), Susan Marshall (Aberdeen), Julian Goodare (Edinburgh).
The workshop will be based on pre-circulated papers.
Bursaries are available for graduate, ECR and non-waged.
Places are extremely limited! Please sign up here: