Convergence of the common law and the civil law - the Scottish experience

The Legal System in Scotland was specifically guaranteed a separate existence within the United Kingdom under a clause in the Act of Union with England in 1707. By this time the law in Scotland had become heavily influenced in its main areas by the developing ius commune of continental Europe. Recent doctrinal legal historical research is beginning to reveal that this had had direct impact on the case law by being cited in Scottish courts, and the Scottish solution, can very often be shown to be the adoption of one of several views that were current and hotly debated in contemporary or earlier Europe. However, as will become more apparent later in this paper, it is not the comparison of precise legal rules or the borrowing and convergence of rules that should be emphasised, but rather a particular way of considering legal questions, a converged way.