INTRODUCTION

This article is a continuation of a previous article that in turn derived from a paper given at the Eleventh British Legal History Conference in Exeter in 1993. That paper and article were primarily concerned with the nature of the entries in the two volume register or registrim to which reference is made in Balfour's Practicks when citing cases. In these entries records of cases in the acta of Council and Session are converted into propositions of law vouched by these cases. The entries are in effect embryo law reports and the register is a digest of early case law. It is not clear that the register was used by anyone other than Balfour and so it may reasonably be called Balfour's Registrum. In the course of the earlier work it was noted that the early entries appear to be largely in chronological order or at least in chronological runs. It was suggested that the Registrum might have been compiled by making extracts from the original acta but it was also noted that further study was needed of the whole range of entries in the Registrum before making any final judgment. What follows is that further study, versions of which were presented to the Fourteenth British Legal History Conference in Edinburgh in July 1999 and to the Scottish Legal History Group in October 1999.