Advocates' Hats, Roman Law, and Admission to the Scots Bar, 1580-1812

The final ceremony for admission as advocate in Scotland before the College of Justice formerly was the delivery of a speech in Latin on a text of the Corpus iuris civilis. The intrant advocate wore a hat for this ceremony. This article discusses the procedures for admission as an advocate to argue that the ritual wearing of a hat had a symbolic meaning central to the aspirations of the Faculty of Advocates. Eventually misunderstood, the ceremony was discontinued in the early nineteenth century.