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THE PRACTIQUES OF SIR RICHARD MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON. Ed by Robert Sutherland Edinburgh: Scottish Record Society, 2007. vii + 400 pp.

Document Cited in Related
Vincent
AuthorJohn W Cairns
DOI10.3366/E1364980908000486
Pages327-328
Date01 May 2008
Published date01 May 2008

The importance of practicks in the history of Scots law has long been recognised. The first volume published by the Stair Society, An Introductory Survey of the Literature and Sources of Scots Law, included an important attempt, by Hector McKechnie, to get to grips with them. This essay is, however, now somewhat dated, and one might also question some of the analytical categories used. But it is still an important starting point. The Stair Society has gone on to publish some sets of practicks. The work of Dr Athol Murray and Professor Gero Dolezalek has recaptured the importance of Sinclair's Practicks, and shown how they can be used to illuminate the development of Scots law. John Ford's Law and Opinion in Scotland in the Seventeenth Century (2007) demonstrates brilliantly how study of practicks can help our understanding of the history of Scots law.

There still remain considerable puzzles over the surviving practicks. Some of these revolve around the manuscripts. The first need is to establish good texts, in the sense at least of original texts as drafted by the author or authors. This is important if they are to be used to interpret and understand the law of the era in which they were initially drawn up. Secondly, what are we to make of the fact that sets of practicks were copied for centuries? Were these simply exercises for men reading law? Did they retain a practical utility? One should remember that sets of copies of practicks were systematically made for the Advocates' Library after its foundation. How do they relate to the manuscript culture of Scots law that existed until towards the end of the seventeenth century?

Sir Richard Maitland (1496-1586) of the Lethington family was an educated laird who became a royal administrator, of the type that marked the evolution of Scots government in the sixteenth century, and was to have a major impact on the development of Scots law. From 1550, he served first as an...

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