- published: 16 Jan 2015
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Scots law is the legal system of Scotland. Considered a hybrid or mixed legal system, with a mixture of civil law and common law elements, it traces its roots to a number of different historical sources. Together with English law and Northern Ireland law, it is one of the three legal systems of the United Kingdom. It shares some elements with the two other systems, but it also has its own unique sources and institutions.
Early Scots law before the 11th century consisted of a mixture of different legal traditions of the various cultural groups that inhabited the country at the time, the Picts, Gaels, Britons, Anglo-Saxons and Norse. The introduction of feudalism from the 11th century and the expansion of the Kingdom of Scotland established the modern roots of Scots law, which was gradually influenced by other, especially continental, legal traditions. Although there was some indirect Roman law influence on Scots law the direct influence of Roman law was slight up until around the 15th century. After this time, Roman law was often adopted in argument in court, in an adapted form, where there was no native Scots rule to settle a dispute; and Roman law was in this way partially received into Scots law.
Scots may refer to:
SCOTS may refer to:
List of Scots is an incomplete list of notable people from Scotland.