Rhetoric, Language, and Roman Law: Legal Education and Improvement in Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Abstract

This chapter examines how the development of theories of rhetoric affected styles of law teaching in eighteenth-century Scotland, leading to the development of the practice of teaching in the English language rather than in Latin. The transition from Latin to English raised difficulties for the central university legal discipline of Civil Law, which was covered in two courses, one on Justinian's Institutes and the other on Justinian's Digest. The chapter analyses the change to teaching in English, the reaction against it by the Faculty of Advocates, and Professor John Wilde's resumption of teaching the course on the Digest in Latin in the 1790s. It also considers issues arising out of rivalry and competition for students between the professors in the University of Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow and between the university professors and private teachers.