Legal institutions of Scotland in the High Middle Ages
Scottish legal institutions in the High Middle Ages are, for the purposes of this article, the informal and formal systems which governed and helped to manage Scottish society between the years 900 and 1288, a period roughly corresponding with the general
Native Law
Pre-fourteenth century
"Le cro et le galnys et le enauch unius cuiusque hominis sunt pares scillicet in respectu de le enauch feminarum suarum"[2]
... contains two Gaelic terms, and one term of Welsh origin which the French translator left alone. Cro, represents the Old Irish word cró, which means homicide, or compensation for homicide (galnys, from Old Welsh galanas, means exactly the same thing in Cumbric). Enauch corresponds to Old Irish enech, which meant "face" (C/F, lóg n-enech meant honour price). The text contains many other Gaelic terms.
Later medieval legal documents, written both in Latin and
Additionally, we know a great deal about early Gaelic law, often called
Judex
A Judex (pl. judices), is what was known in medieval Gaelic as Brithem or Breitheamh, and later becoming known in English as doomster. The institution is so Gaelic in nature that it is rarely translated by scholars. It probably represents a post-Norman continuity with the ancient Gaelic orders of lawmen called in English today Brehons. However, in rare cases, the term was also used for similar Anglo-Saxon officials in the English-speaking lands of the Scottish king. Bearers of the office almost always have Gaelic names north of the Forth or in the
Justiciar
However, the main official of law in the post-Davidian Kingdom of the Scots was the Justiciar. The institution has some Anglo-Norman origins, but in Scotland north of the Forth it represented some form of continuity with an older office. For instance, Mormaer
Normally, there were two Justiciarships, organized by linguistic boundaries: the Justiciar of Scotia and the Justiciar of Lothian. Sometimes there was also a Justiciar of Galloway. The Justiciarship of Lothian dates to somewhere in the reign of Máel Coluim IV. As English expanded westwards in the thirteenth century and after, Lothian came to include not only the core south-east, but also subordinated the sheriffs of Stirling, Lanark, Dumbarton and even Ayr. When Edward I of England conquered Scotland, he divided it into four justiciarships of two justiciars each: Scotia north of the Grampians; Scotia south of the Grampians; Lothian; and Galloway. [5]
Courts
Notes
- ^ , D.H.S. Sellar, "Gaelic Laws and Institutions", (2001), pp. 381–2
- ^ , MacQueen, "Laws and Languages", (2002).
- ^ , Kelly, Early Irish Law, esp. pp. 324–5.
- ^ , Barrow, Kingdom of the Scots, (2003), pp. 69–82.
- ^ , See Barrow, "Justiciar", ibid., pp. 68–109.
References
- Barrow, G.W.S., The Kingdom of the Scots, (Edinburgh, 2003)
- Kelly, Fergus, Early Irish Law, (Dublin, 1998)
- MacQueen, Hector, "Laws and Languages: Some Historical Notes from Scotland", vol 6.2 Electronic Journal of Comparative Law, (July 2002) *
- Sellar, D.H.S. "Gaelic Laws and Institutions", (2001), in M. Lynch (ed.) The Oxford Companion to Scottish History, (New York, 2001), pp. 381–2