The Stair Society, Scotland's leading legal history society, was founded in 1934 to encourage the study and advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law by the publication of original documents and by the reprinting and editing of works of sufficient rarity or importance.

The Society, a registered charity, has produced some 60 volumes, aiming to publish a volume each year (although this is not guaranteed). Some of these are of antiquarian interest, while others are of wider intellectual and historical significance.

All our books are accessible free to members in electronic form on the HeinOnline legal database, after an interval of three years following hardback publication. This presently covers volumes 1 to 57. Volume 58 will be added later this year.

At our annual meeting each November a distinguished lecturer is invited to give an address, which is followed by lunch for members and their guests.

In making knowledge of the past readily accessible and fulfilling its objectives, we depend on the support of Scottish lawyers, both advocates and solicitors, and on legal historians throughout the world, as well as upon libraries and institutions.

When resources allow us to do so, we also fund a postgraduate scholarship in furtherance of our objectives.