Laws and Languages: Some historical Notes from scotland Hector L. MacQueen Readers are reminded that this work is protected by copyright. While they are free to use the ideas expressed in it, they may not copy, distribute or publish the work or part of it, in any form, printed, electronic or othenwise, except for reasonable quoting clearly indicating the source. Readers are permitted to make copies, electronically or printed, for personal and classroom use i would like to begin by thanking the lus commune research School for a generous invitation to my Scottish colleagues and me to attend this meeting in Utrecht. The opportunity to join you on this occasion is an extremely welcome one, and I hope that it may be a basis upon which future co-operation and collaboration between us will grow. So far as the Scots are concerned, this is a further renewal of the links that have long bound our country to the low countries in matters of law. It is well known, I think, that these links were probably at their strongest in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when generations of Scottish students made their way to the law schools of Leiden and Utrecht, leading to a major Roman-Dutch influence on the development of Scots law in that period 2 But such links do in fact have a longer history still; when the University of louvain was founded in 1425, Scots were amongst its earliest students and their ranks include a number of figures which were to play a major role in Scottish law and government in the fifteenth century. 3 Going still further back into the Middle Ages, we can find extensive settlement from Flanders occurring in twelfth-and thirteenth-century Scotland much of it mercantile in nature and so extremely important in east-coast Scottish towns such Berwick, Dundee and Aberdeen, but also including a significant feudal or military d imension in such as Clydesdale in the south and moray and Garioch in the north-east. 4 This explains to this day 'Fleming remains a common Scottish surname, although it does not explain a fourteenth-century charter of Thomas earl of Mar in favour of his faithful and beloved clerk John November 2001.Parts of it are extracted from a previously published paper, Li. oaper delivered at Utrecht on 29 ustic Communities in Medieval Scots Law, in Communities and Courts in Britain 1150-1900,ed C w. Brooks and M. Lobban (London and rio Grande, 1997). I am grateful for the help provided in preparing this text by my colleagues George Gretton and Niamh nic Shuibhne, and by my father, John Mac Queen on Scot The most recent discussion is J.W. Caims, "Importing our Lawyers from Holland:Netherlands Influences Law and Lawyers in the Eighteenth Century,, in Scotland and the Low Countries 1124-1994, ed GG Simpson(East Linton, 1996) See J H. Baxter, Scottish Students at Louvain University 1425-1484, Scottish Historical Review xXv ( 1928)327;R. Lyall, "Scottish Students and Masters at the Universities of Cologne and Louvain in the Fifteenth Century, Innes Review xxxvi(1985)55 See the contributions of L. Toorians( Twelfth-century Flemish Settlements in Scotland )and A. Steven (The Flemish Dimension of the Auld Alliance') to Simpson(ed ) Scotland and the Low Countries 1124-1994 Garioch, which comes from the gaelic gairbheach, rough, rocky place, is today pronounced geery, but possibly not so in medieval timesLaws and Languages: Some Historical Notes from Scotland Hector L. MacQueen1 Readers are reminded that this work is protected by copyright. While they are free to use the ideas expressed in it, they may not copy, distribute or publish the work or part of it, in any form, printed, electronic or otherwise, except for reasonable quoting, clearly indicating the source. Readers are permitted to make copies, electronically or printed, for personal and classroom use. I would like to begin by thanking the Ius Commune Research School for a generous invitation to my Scottish colleagues and me to attend this meeting in Utrecht. The opportunity to join you on this occasion is an extremely welcome one, and I hope that it may be a basis upon which future co-operation and collaboration between us will grow. So far as the Scots are concerned, this is a further renewal of the links that have long bound our country to the Low Countries in matters of law. It is well known, I think, that these links were probably at their strongest in the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, when generations of Scottish students made their way to the law schools of Leiden and Utrecht, leading to a major Roman-Dutch influence on the development of Scots law in that period.2 But such links do in fact have a longer history still; when the University of Louvain was founded in 1425, Scots were amongst its earliest students and their ranks include a number of figures which were to play a major role in Scottish law and government in the fifteenth century.3 Going still further back into the Middle Ages, we can find extensive settlement from Flanders occurring in twelfth- and thirteenth-century Scotland: much of it mercantile in nature and so extremely important in east-coast Scottish towns such as Berwick, Dundee and Aberdeen, but also including a significant feudal or military dimension in areas such as Clydesdale in the south and Moray and Garioch in the north-east.4 This explains why to this day ‘Fleming’ remains a common Scottish surname, although it does not explain a fourteenth-century charter of Thomas earl of Mar in favour of his faithful and beloved clerk John 1 Professor of Private Law, University of Edinburgh. This is the text of a paper delivered at Utrecht on 29 November 2001. Parts of it are extracted from a previously published paper, ‘Linguistic Communities in Medieval Scots Law’, in Communities and Courts in Britain 1150-1900, ed. C.W. Brooks and M. Lobban (London and Rio Grande, 1997). I am grateful for the help provided in preparing this text by my colleagues George Gretton and Niamh nic Shuibhne, and by my father, John MacQueen. 2 The most recent discussion is J.W. Cairns, ‘Importing our Lawyers from Holland: Netherlands Influences on Scots Law and Lawyers in the Eighteenth Century’, in Scotland and the Low Countries 1124-1994, ed. G.G. Simpson (East Linton, 1996). 3 See J.H. Baxter, ‘Scottish Students at Louvain University 1425-1484’, Scottish Historical Review xxv (1928) 327; R.J. Lyall, ‘Scottish Students and Masters at the Universities of Cologne and Louvain in the Fifteenth Century’, Innes Review xxxvi (1985) 55. 4 See the contributions of L. Toorians (‘Twelfth-century Flemish Settlements in Scotland’) and A. Stevenson (‘The Flemish Dimension of the Auld Alliance’) to Simpson (ed.), Scotland and the Low Countries 1124-1994. Garioch, which comes from the Gaelic gairbheach, ‘rough, rocky place’, is today pronounced ‘geery’, but possibly not so in medieval times