Scotland kept its own legal system, distinct from England's, even after the Union of 1707: the Treaty of Union guaranteed the survival of Scots law, the Scottish courts and the Church of Scotland. The result is a mixed system, unique in Europe, combining elements of Roman law and the continental civil-law tradition with elements of English common law.
Origins
In the medieval and early modern periods many Scottish lawyers studied at continental universities, in Paris, Leiden and Utrecht, and brought home Justinian's Roman law, canon law and the doctrines of European jurists. In the 17th and 18th centuries great authors such as James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair, whose Institutions of the Law of Scotland appeared in 1681, systematised Scots law: their treatises, the institutional writings, are still a source of law today. After 1707 the influence of English common law grew, above all through Acts of the Westminster Parliament and decisions of the House of Lords, but many institutions remained different, particularly property, succession and family law and criminal law, which is still largely uncodified and based on custom.
Since 1999 the Scottish Parliament has legislated on most civil and criminal matters, and Scots law has diverged further from English law.
The courts
- Justice of the Peace Courts: minor offences.
- Sheriff Courts: the basic court for most civil and criminal cases, present in all the main towns, with the sheriff as judge.
- High Court of Justiciary: the supreme criminal court, which tries the most serious offences and hears appeals; its criminal judgments are final and cannot be appealed to the UK Supreme Court, except on human rights or devolution issues.
- Court of Session: the supreme civil court, sitting in Parliament House in Edinburgh; its decisions can be appealed to the UK Supreme Court.
Juries and verdicts
Scottish criminal juries have fifteen members, not twelve as in England. For centuries Scotland also had a third verdict besides "guilty" and "not guilty": the famous not proven, which still led to acquittal. A reform passed by the Scottish Parliament in 2025 decided to abolish it and to require a larger majority for a conviction.
Lawyers and prosecutors
In Scotland too the profession is divided between solicitors and advocates, the equivalent of English barristers, gathered in the Faculty of Advocates in Edinburgh. Prosecution is the responsibility of the Lord Advocate, the most senior prosecutor and a member of the Scottish Government, and of local procurators fiscal, who also investigate suspicious deaths. Since 2013 there has been a single national force, Police Scotland. The age of criminal responsibility is twelve.
Curiosities
In Scotland people can marry at 16 without parental consent, a rule that for centuries made the border village of Gretna Green famous as the place where young English couples eloped to marry; in England, Wales and Northern Ireland the minimum age for marriage has now been raised to 18, while in Scotland it remains 16. Access to land is different too: Scots law gives everyone a broad right to walk and camp responsibly on most land and inland water.
See also the English legal system, Scotland and Parliament and government.