This collection offers a representative selection of articles and contributions to books which have appeared during my academic career. The essays are grouped, sometimes a little roughly, into those concerned with “pure” Roman law, those concerned with the influence of Roman or Civil Law on particular issues in Scots law, those concerned with Scottish legal history, those concerned with the wider influence of the Civil Law and finally three essays on more general topics. They have been lightly revised for publication.

Without the inspiration and encouragement of David Daube, of whose advanced class in Roman law at Aberdeen I was for two years the sole undergraduate member, it is doubtful whether I would have taken up an academic career as I had during my LLB studies simultaneously enjoyed an old-style apprenticeship with Messrs A C Morrison & Richards. My equally enjoyable apprenticeship in academia was with Peter Stein and Tony Thomas in Aberdeen and Glasgow respectively, and it is not therefore surprising that the first article in the collection is on Roman law (No 1) stemming from work on my PhD, the thesis for which was eventually published as Studies in the Transfer of Property by Traditio. While I would still stand by the conclusions reached I would now take the view that the classical lawyers who recognised constitutum possessorium would have taken each case on its merits rather than, as I then suggested, making a dogmatic requirement that there be a causa detentionis or reason for remaining in possession. Scots law indeed could with advantage take the same approach.