Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-7bb8b95d7b-pwrkn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-09-11T13:19:04.159Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

11 - Roman Law in a Nineteenth-century Scottish Case: Gowans v Christie

from ROMAN LAW AND SCOTS LAW

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 August 2013

William Gordon
Affiliation:
University of Glasgow
Get access

Summary

In his excellent survey of the influence of Roman law on Scots law Professor Stein states that there was in the nineteenth century a decline in the Roman influence on Scots law and observes that:

A deeper cause of the decline in Roman influence was probably the new situation created by the industrialisation of the nineteenth century. In many respects Roman law was well suited for application in the social and economic circumstances of eighteenth-century Scotland; but now there was a natural tendency when Scots law was lacking to look to English decisions for guidance. The fact that the House of Lords was the supreme court of appeal from both Scotland and England accelerated this trend, for the majority of its judges have always been trained in English rather than in Scots law.

The case selected for discussion in this article, Gowans v Christie, has been so selected because it affords some evidence to support Professor Stein's view on the relevance of industrialisation to the decline of the influence of Roman law in Scotland and also because it illustrates other aspects of the use of Roman law in Scotland and the climate of opinion in the nineteenth century in which the possibility of application of Roman law arose.

Type
Chapter
Information
Roman Law, Scots Law and Legal History
Selected Essays
, pp. 126 - 140
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Print publication year: 2007

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×