Comparative Perspectives in Scottish and Norwegian Legal History, Trade and Seafaring, 1200-1800

The first comparative work on Scots and Norwegian law, from town law and state formation to trade and migration Scotland and Norway have much in common when it comes to population size, harvesting natural resources at sea and in mountainous terrain, a historically protestant religious background, trends in urbanisation, state formation and later centralization of government. However, there has never been any attempt made to compare Scottish and Norwegian legal history. Bringing together experts in Norwegian and Scottish legal, economic and political history, this volume breaks new ground by being the first to compare Scottish and Norwegian legal history with a view to establishing connections and points of contact between Norwegian and Scots law. Each topic is covered in tandem by a pair of contributors: one an expert in Scots law looking at the Scottish perspective, the other an expert in Norwegian law looking at the Norwegian perspective. Key features - Brings together contributions from distinguished and early career scholars, with expertise in the fields of legal, economic and political history - Compares Scottish and Norwegian state formation, governance of the realm and town law, migration, trade and seafaring across the North Sea - Reflects on and contributes to the methodology of comparative legal history more generally - Each chapter pair is accompanied by an introduction by the editors drawing out the common themes - Organised chronologically, from the mid-13th to the mid-18th century Andrew R. C. Simpson is Professor of Scottish Legal History at the University of Edinburgh. Jørn Øyrehagen Sunde is Professor in Legal History at the University of Oslo.