Common Law and Feudal Society in Medieval Scotland

Hector MacQueen has been a member of the Edinburgh Law School since 1979. Appointed to the Chair of Private Law in 1994, he was Dean of the Law School 1999-2003, and Dean of Research and Deputy Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science in the University 2004-2008. He is currently a Scottish Law Commissioner. He is the author of many books and articles on Scots law and its historical development in comparative perspective, and of key textbooks such as The Scottish Legal System (5th edition) (2013), Unjustified Enrichment Law Basics (3rd edition) (2013), and Studying Scots Law 4th edition (2012).

• Acknowledgements; Note on Editions of Texts; Preface; Foreword: Common Law and Feudal Society in Scholarship since 1993; Chapter 1. Introduction; Chapter 2. Lords’ Courts and Royal Justice; Chapter 3. Men of Law and Books of Law; Chapter 4. Pleadable Brieves and Free Holdings; Chapter 5. The Brieve of Novel Dissasine; Chapter 6. The Brieve of Mortancestry; Chapter 7. The Brieve of Right; Chapter 8. Council, Free and Heritage; Chapter 9. Conclusions; Bibliography; Indices.

There are indeed certain laws generally and frequently used in the courts which it does not seem to me absurd or presumptuous to commit to writing. And so some of these I have decided to render in writing at the command of the Lord King David.'