TY - JOUR
T1 - From Text-Book to Book of Authority
T2 - The Principles of George Joseph Bell
AU - Reid, Kenneth
PY - 2011/1
Y1 - 2011/1
N2 - Today George Joseph Bell’s Principles of the Law of Scotland is seen as markingthe end of the “institutional” period in Scottish legal development. Remarkably,however, the Principles was originally conceived, not as an authoritative workwhich would bring its author enduring fame, but as a student text intended toreplace a well-established work of the same name by John Erskine of Carnock,1one of Bell’s predecessors in the Chair of Scots Law at Edinburgh University. Andindeed the text was seen as one part only of a whole system of legal education. This paper examines the circumstances in which the Principles was written andconsiders its gradual transformation into a work of a quite different kind.
AB - Today George Joseph Bell’s Principles of the Law of Scotland is seen as markingthe end of the “institutional” period in Scottish legal development. Remarkably,however, the Principles was originally conceived, not as an authoritative workwhich would bring its author enduring fame, but as a student text intended toreplace a well-established work of the same name by John Erskine of Carnock,1one of Bell’s predecessors in the Chair of Scots Law at Edinburgh University. Andindeed the text was seen as one part only of a whole system of legal education. This paper examines the circumstances in which the Principles was written andconsiders its gradual transformation into a work of a quite different kind.
U2 - 10.3366/elr.2011.0002
DO - 10.3366/elr.2011.0002
M3 - Article
SN - 1364-9809
VL - 15
SP - 6
EP - 32
JO - Edinburgh Law Review
JF - Edinburgh Law Review
IS - 1
ER -