Manuscripta juridica

Institutions of the law of Scotland .

[{i}Title page:{/i}] James Viscount Stair, Lord President of the Session: The Institutions of the Law of Scotland, Deduced from its Originals, and Collated with the Civil, Canon, and Feudal Laws; and with the Customs of Neighbouring Nations. In IV Books. The Second Edition, Revised, Corrected, and much Enlarged: with an Alphabetical Index to the whole work. Edinburgh 1693 [{i}copy at Aberdeen, UL, shelfmark pi MH f 34702 Sta, formerly belonging to W. Urquhart of Meldrum (saec. XVIII){/i}].

The text of the second edition is in one sense narrowed as it refers to less judicial precedent, and in other sense enlarged as it now contains a much more detailed account of the law of procedure, comprising 223 pages, much larger than the treatise '{i}Form of Process{/i}' which was printed with the first edition.

[{i}Author's advertisement for the second edition:{/i}] ... Secondly, the former edition was collected by me in many years, and designed chiefly for my particular use, that I might know the decisions and Acts of Session, since the first institution of it, and that I might the more clear and determine my judgment in the matter of justice. And to that end I made indexes of all the decisions, which had been observed by men of the greatest reputation, and did cite the same. But considering that the ancient decisions, were before these troden paths, which have since come to be fixed customs, and that there were not authentick copies of these old collections; I thought fit, in this edition, only to relate to the later and more authentick and useful collections.

Thirdly, in the former edition I designed the treatise to be divided into three parts, ... The first part being concerning the constitution of original rights. The second concerning the transmission of these original rights, amongst the living and from the dead. The third concerning the cognition and execution of all these rights [{i}the author thus refers to the appended treatise 'Modus litigandi, form of process ...' as a 'third part' of his book{/i}]. Yet finding it would be acceptable to divide the Institutions of our law into four books, as the Institutions of the Civil Law are divided, and especially because there is a more eminent distinction in our law betwixt heretable rights of the ground, and moveable rights; I have divided this edition into four parts. The first being of original personal rights. The second of original real rights. The third of the conveyance of both. And the fourth of the cognition and execution of the whole.

Fourthly ... the whole treatise was contained in 31 titles. But now I have divided the long titles in the first book, and put them under more special titles, and have divided the paragraphs, and joyned them with the several titles accordingly

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Author(s):

• James Dalrymple later 1st Viscount Stair

No. of pages: (item 1)

Incipit:

• [{i}Book 1, title 1:{/i}] Common principles of law. My design being to give a description of the law and customs of Scotland, such as might not only be profitable for judges and lawyers, but might be pleasant and useful to all persons of honour and discretion.

  [{i}Further titles in Book 1:{/i}]{i}{/i}2 Liberty and servitude. Liberty is that natural power which man hath of his own person, whence a free man is said to be suae potestatis, in his own power ... 3 Obligations in general. Rights called personal, or obligations, being in nature and time, for the most part anterior to, and inductive of rights real of dominion and property ... 4 Conjugal obligations. The first obligations God put upon man toward man were conjugal obligations, which arose from the constitution of marriage before the fall ... 5 Obligations between parents and children. 6 Obligations between tutors and curators, and their pupils and minors, between persons interdicted, and their interdictors. 7 Restitution. 8 Recompence or remuneration. 9 Reparation, where of delinquences, and damnages thence arising. 10 Obligations conventional, by promise, paction, and contract. 11 Loan, or mutuum and commodatum, where of bills of exchange.

  [{i}Penultimate title in Book 3:{/i}]{i}{/i}8 Executory, where of testaments, codicils, legacies, relicts part, bairns part, deads part, confirmations, and office of executory.

  [{i}Last title in Book 3:{/i}]{i}{/i}9 Vitious intromission. Vitious intromission is only a passive title, making the intrometter lyable to all the defunct's debts, passive ... but the acquisition was found to be a collusion, the buyer being the defunct's good-son, pretending to buy from a stranger. Nov. 29, 1679. Irving contra Kilpatrick.

  [{i}Incipit of the newly added Book 4:{/i}]{i}{/i}1 The authority of the Lords of Council and Session. The institutions of the law and customs of Scotland, as to the constitution and transmission of the several kinds of privat rights in all matters civil, having been printed and published anno 1681, and the copies being all sold, and now a second edition being also printed, with many corrections and additions, I would not longer disappoint the desires and expectations of many, to add the last part of the Institutions proposed in the former edition.

  [{i}Further titles in Book 4:{/i}]{i}{/i}2 The order of discussing processes. 3 Ordinar actions generally. 4 Declarators of property and superiority. 5 Declarators of trust ... 50 Inhibition and arrestment, etc. 51 Adjudications. 52 Suspensions, where of sists of execution, relaxation, and charges to set at liberty, either upon justice, or upon mercy, super cessione bonorum.

  Appendix [{i}regards recent statutes{/i}]