The Medieval Canon Law in Scotland: Marriage and Divorce

That Scots law differed substantially from the common law of England is the conclusion of virtually all historians who have taken an interest in the subject.1 True, the two legal regimes shared some basic features. Scottish brieves, for instance, conformed to the overall pattern of English writs.2 Some exchange of ideas also took place. However, the laws and the legal systems of the two realms were never identical. Blackstone regarded the failure to consolidate their diverse laws into a single system as one of the few flaws in the accomplishments of the reign of Edward I.