The Circulation of Legal Ideas: Scotland South of the Border

Speaker:

Professor Alexandra Braun (University of Edinburgh)

Chair:

Lord Mance

About the lecture:

Comparative lawyers have long been fascinated with the study of how legal ideas circulate across jurisdictions and legal traditions, and how they influence developments and changes in the law. In some cases, this has led to the creation of mixed legal systems. It is well-known that Scotland is such a mixed legal system and that it exhibits features of both civil and common law. While much has been written about the reception of English law in Scotland, comparatively little is known about how Scottish legal ideas have travelled abroad and, in particular, the extent to which they have shaped developments south of the border.

The aim of this lecture is to explore the circulation of Scottish legal ideas across the border and to map how, when, why, and with what consequences, these ideas have entered the English legal system. The objective is to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the character of and the narratives surrounding the exchanges between north and south of the Tweed.

About the speaker:

Alexandra Braun holds the Lord President Reid Chair in Law at the University of Edinburgh. Professor Braun is also a Visiting Research Fellow at the Institute of European and Comparative Law in Oxford and an Honorary Research Fellow at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Professor Braun is currently Series Editor of the Edinburgh Studies in Law series published by Edinburgh University Press.

Prior to taking up her post in 2017, Professor Braun was Professor of Comparative Private Law at Oxford University as well as a Fellow and Tutor in Law at Lady Margaret Hall.

Professor Braun has broad research interests in comparative law and legal history. Her current research focuses primarily on the fields of succession law and the law of trusts. Professor Braun is also interested in the impact of the transfer of wealth on questions of intergenerational equality and the cultural history of inheritance. Other interests include legal education, the study of the intellectual history of the law, and the development of various forms of legal scholarship and its interaction with, and impact upon, judicial decision-making.

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