Justice in Scotland
IN a slim volume of some 160 pages Professor Hannay has embodied the results of much research among the Scottish legal and historical records. Perhaps, however, it is a pity that his book is on so small a scale. The subject dealt with is hardly likely to attract the enthusiastic attention of the ordinary reader, and, on the other hand, the specialist would have welcomed a fuller selection from the original documents that have been consulted. On the legal side it would have been an improvement, had the author given a short account of some of the work the Senators of the College of Justice actually did. For example he repeatedly mentions an outlandish monster called a " spuilzie," without ever explaining what it is. According to Erskine's Institute of the Law of Scotland a spuilzie is the " taking away or intermeddling with moveable goods in the possession of another, without either the consent of that other, or the order of law. When a spuilzie is com- mitted, action lies against the delinquent, not only for restoring to the former possessor the goods or their value, but for all the profits he might have made of these goods, had it not been for the spuilzie."
In four preliminary chapters Professor Hannay gives a brief. account of the Sessions of James I, the Lords of Council and Session, the antecedents of the College of Justice, and the imposition of the Great Tax. This last was a requisition upon the Prelates of the Church of Scotland, sanctioned by the Pope: and destined, ostensibly at any rate, for the support of the new College of Justice. In virtue of a bull by Clement VII, issued in September, 1531, the Scots Prelates were required to contribute annually a sum equal to 10,000 gold ducats for this purpose. The tax, however, was commuted for a lump sum of £72,000 payable by the end of 1536 in eight instalments, and in addition the Prelates were to make an annual payment of, £1,400 a year. But great difficulty seems to have been experi- enced in persuading the churchmen to pay up.
As regards the origin of our Supreme Court Professor. Hannay suggests that an Italian, and not a French, model must be looked for. This is contrary to the popular opinion. Sir George Mackenzie declared that " the present model was- fixed and established by King James the Fifth after the model of the Parlement of Paris." He was followed by Erskine, and- this explanation has been accepted ever since. But James'. secretary, Thomas Erskine, had been a student at Pavia, which had its own college of judges like all the other great. Italian cities. Erskine was sent to Rome .to negotiate with Clement VII regarding the ecclesiastical tax, and it is sug- gested that the idea of setting up a." college of judges " came from him.
Previous page
