Advocates’ Hats, Roman Law, and Admission to the Scots Bar, 1580–1812

Abstract

This chapter presents a detailed study of actual admissions and of modes of admission as an advocate, almost from the foundation of the College of Justice to the Regency era, focusing on development of a set of examinations in Civil (Roman) law that came to replicate the exercises for examination in a university for the degree of Doctor of Laws. It was the focus on these examinations for admission that reinforced and perhaps even accelerated the tendency of Scots to acquire abroad the necessary knowledge and skills in Civil law that they needed to pass their ‘trials’. The symbolism of the trials reinforced the status of the advocates as learned gentlemen and linked their profession with that of advocates in other countries.