Scotland and Louisiana are mixed jurisdictions. They are built upon the dual foundations of Common Law and Civil Law and belong to a legal family that includes South Africa, Quebec, Puerto Rico, Sri Lanka, Israel and others around the world. The idea of classifying legal systems in this way can be traced back more than 100 years, but it was only in the second half of the twentieth century that the Scottish scholar Sir Thomas Broun Smith urged the mixed jurisdictions to engage in cross-comparative studies as a means of overcoming the perils of isolation and steady assimilation by the Common Law. Smith's work is generally credited with a revitalisation of the Scottish system, but it also raised the consciousness of colleagues in many countries, including in Louisiana. Smith, who held a chair at the University of Aberdeen and subsequently at Edinburgh, occupied a visiting post at Tulane Law School in 1957-1958 and Louisiana State University in 1972, and was made an Honorary Member of Council of the Louisiana State Law Institute in 1960. In his inaugural lecture at the University of Edinburgh Smith commended to his Scots audience the example of the “flourishing legal literature and journals” of Louisiana. And respect was reciprocated. When, in turn, Professor Leonard Oppenheim of Tulane Law School was invited to give a course of lectures at the University of Edinburgh in 1960, he began by looking forward to a “succession of visits” between the two jurisdictions.