Legal Nationalism: Lord Cooper, Legal History and Comparative Law

Abstract

This paper is one of a set of studies on the contribution of Lord Cooper of Culross (1892–1955) to the development and understanding of Scots law, including its history, and to the phenomenon of Scottish legal nationalism. Cooper is one of the major figures of Scots law in the twentieth century. He practised at the bar between the two world wars, became an MP and Lord Advocate (the principal Scottish Law Officer) in the 1930s, and in 1941 was appointed to the Court of Session bench, first as Lord Justice Clerk and, then, in 1947, as Lord Justice General and Lord President, head of the Scottish judiciary. He was also, in 1934, one of the founders of the Scottish legal history society, the Stair Society, and made significant contributions to its early volumes, in particular with editions of the medieval texts Regiam Majestatem, Quoniam Attachiamenta and the “Register of Brieves”. Cooper was also a prolific writer and commentator on the law in aspects other than its history, and a collection of his papers appeared after his premature death following a cerebral thrombosis. My principal reason for first becoming interested in Cooper many years ago was his work on the medieval history of Scots law, and the English influences which were so important to that history. He had certain theories on this subject with which I soon found myself in significant (although not total) disagreement. I do not wish to elaborate further on this theme here; most of my observations on the