In a collection of essays offering a well deserved tribute to a friend and colleague Mario Talamanca with the collection to be entitled Iuris Vincula it seemed appropriate to discuss certain aspects of the legal bond created by servitudes. The discussion relates primarily to Scots law but where the law of servitudes is concerned Scots law owes a great deal to Roman law and hence it seemed equally appropriate to dedicate the discussion to a Roman lawyer who has made notable contributions to the discipline.

Although the influence of Roman law in the Scots law of servitudes is clear it is equally clear that rights comparable to servitudes existed in Scots law long before the extensive reception of Roman law which took place in Scotland from the fifteenth century onwards. Early charters refer to rights such as pasturage, usually in some such form as aisiamenta - whence the “easements” of English law, to which early Scots law had a close resemblance. But Scots law as it developed adopted the terminology and the main principles of the Roman law of servitudes, as is evidenced in part by the general abandonment of the term “easement” in favour of “servitude” to describe the rights in question. As is commonly the case with reception of Roman law into Scots law the adoption was not complete.