An Introduction to Scottish Legal Culture

Legal culture may be defined as ideas and expectations of law made operational by institutional (-like) practices. In other words, legal culture can be analysed in terms of its ‘institutional’ elements—identified as mechanisms of conflict resolution and norm production—and its ‘intellectual elements’—ideas and expectations of law manifested in terms of an ideal of justice, legal method, the degree of professionalisation and the character of internationalisation within the culture in question. The present contribution takes this analytical model and applies it to the law of Scotland. In terms of conflict resolution, it draws attention to Scotland’s two primary hierarchies of courts, these being the civil and the criminal courts. In terms of norm production, it explores statute and precedent, and the use of authoritative juristic works known as the Institutional Writings. It presents the Scottish ideal of justice as being shaped by a desire for legal certainty, and notes that Scottish legal method is complex, as informed by the equally complex history of Scots law itself. There is a high degree of professionalisation within the culture, with a strong emphasis on academic training. Lawyers and legal academics also frequently show significant willingness to entertain ideas drawn from without Scottish legal culture, and intellectually cosmopolitan outlooks are valued.