ABSTRACT
The law, lawyers and legal system were like a hub of a wheel in the eighteenth century, with spokes going out to touch most areas of élite activity. The reasons for the Law being so aristocratic and landed a preserve are financial and social. Roman Law’s position in Scotland was strengthened by the removal of Canon Law at the time of the Reformation and Calvin’s Institutes were clearly influenced by Roman Law. The Jacobite Rebellions of 1715 and 1745 were further stimuli to the development of Scots Law. The Law grew as a result of various acts being passed and decisions of the Courts being made on the basis of those acts. The Treaty of Union of 1707 merely boosted an existing situation in which the Law and its practitioners in Scotland were beginning to thrive. The involvement of the Law in politics meant that it was within the Law that Scottish political battles were often fought out.
