Invincible or Just a Flesh Wound? The Holy Grail of Scots Law

Abstract

An assessment of the current state of Scots law and the Scottish legal system, arguing that as a small legal system which cannot be self-contained it is inevitably in a state of crisis, from which, however, it will not be rescued by Scotland becoming independent. Whatever happens after the referendum concerning Scottish Independence on 18 September 2014, the law is in need of active legislative reform, possibly codification, while the courts must become more positive in the attraction of business rather than, as it sometimes seems, seeking to push it away. Mere defence of the status quo will end in disablement and defeat. The text is a rewritten and lightly updated version of the Willi Steiner Memorial Lecture given at the 44th Annual Conference of the in British and Irish Association of Law Librarians held in Glasgow on 13 June 2013.

Keywords: Scots Law, Scottish Legal System, Independence referendum.