Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- ENLIGHTENED LEGAL EDUCATION
- 1 Lawyers, Law Professors, and Localities: The Universities of Aberdeen, 1680–1750
- 2 Rhetoric, Language, and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Scotland
- 3 The Influence of Smith's Jurisprudence on Legal Education in Scotland
- 4 The First Edinburgh Chair in Law: Grotius and the Scottish Enlightenment
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLASGOW LAW SCHOOL
- ENLIGHTENED CRITIQUE: CRIME, COURTS, AND SLAVERY
- CRITIQUES: LITERATURE AND LEGAL HISTORY
- Index
3 - The Influence of Smith's Jurisprudence on Legal Education in Scotland
from ENLIGHTENED LEGAL EDUCATION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 October 2017
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- ENLIGHTENED LEGAL EDUCATION
- 1 Lawyers, Law Professors, and Localities: The Universities of Aberdeen, 1680–1750
- 2 Rhetoric, Language, and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Scotland
- 3 The Influence of Smith's Jurisprudence on Legal Education in Scotland
- 4 The First Edinburgh Chair in Law: Grotius and the Scottish Enlightenment
- THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE GLASGOW LAW SCHOOL
- ENLIGHTENED CRITIQUE: CRIME, COURTS, AND SLAVERY
- CRITIQUES: LITERATURE AND LEGAL HISTORY
- Index
Summary
LEGAL EDUCATION AND NATURAL LAW
On 8 January 1760, it was moved before the Faculty of Advocates that they should recommend those proposing to join their number to attend the lectures given in the University of Edinburgh on the law of nature and nations. The Faculty noted that regular lectures on that topic were now given in the University and expressed satisfaction with “the merit and abilities” of the professor (Robert Bruce), and accordingly recommended all those who intended to become “Candidates for the office of Advocate, to apply to the study of the law of Nature and Nations”, because “it concerns the honour of the Faculty that their members should be versant in every part of polite Literature and particularly in the law of Nature and Nations, the fountain of Justice and equity”. After noting on 5 January 1762 that this resolution had not been adhered to, and establishing a committee to consider how to make it effective, the Faculty resolved as follows on 24 November:
The Dean and Faculty of Advocates considering that they by their Resolution dated the 8th January 1760 recommended it to all young Gentlemen who intended to offer themselves Candidates for the office of Advocate to apply to the study of the Law of Nature and Nations. And considering that it concerns the Honour of the Faculty that their members should be versant in every part of polite literature and more particularly in those parts of Learning which are immediately connected with the Roman Law and the Law of Scotland. They therefore recommend to the private Examinators in both Branches of the Law from and after the twelfth Day of June next to examine Candidates upon the Law of Nature and Nations in so far as it is connected with the Civil Law or the Law of this Country. And they hereby appoint That a Copy of this their Resolution to be sent to all the professors in the University of Edinburgh in order that the same may be intimated to the Students at their respective Colleges.
This requirement was a new departure for the Faculty of Advocates. Until 1750, intrants to the Faculty had been examined on either Scots law or Civil (Roman) law, and, after 1750, on both.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Enlightenment, Legal Education, and CritiqueSelected Essays on the History of Scots Law, Volume 2, pp. 64 - 81Publisher: Edinburgh University PressPrint publication year: 2015