Legal Nationalisms in Scotland

A critical re-assessment of nationalist influences and thinking in the history of Scottish law and legal scholarship

• Demonstrates the importance of law and independence to Scottish identity from the thirteenth century on
• Analysis of aims of comparative and historical legal scholarship in Scotland from late nineteenth century on to the beginning of the twenty-first century, with particular reference to private law
• Detailed assessments of the contributions of Andrew Dewar Gibb, Lord Cooper and T B Smith to Scottish legal scholarship and of reaction to them
• Fresh discussion of the relationship between legal and political nationalism
• Reflection from a Scottish perspective on whether private law is inherently either national or apolitical in nature

Scottish legal nationalism (sometimes defined as the belief that Scots law is an exceptional system, the integrity of which must be safeguarded against harmful external influences) has been a source of controversy in modern Scots law. This book is a major contribution to a long-running debate and aims at an understanding of the phenomenon more nuanced than its most recent and negative assessments as reactionary, backward-looking and elitist. Rather, legal nationalism in various forms has contributed significantly to the reform and modernisation of the Scots law and legal system since the Anglo-Scottish Union of 1707.

The book contributes to wider academic debates about legal nationalism as a phenomenon in legal systems generally, reflecting especially on the question whether private law is inherently either national or, rather, apolitical, and the roles played by legal history and comparative law. It contributes to debates about Scottish nationalism generally, drawing attention to the place of legal nationalism within that topic despite its attracting only limited attention hitherto from non-lawyers. In particular, the idea of nationalism being a product of the rise of nation-states only from the late seventeenth century on is rejected.

Legal Nationalisms in Scotland is of interest to academics, lawyers and students working on Scots law, whether from the perspective of current law, comparative law or legal history, as well as those working across Scottish history and politics.