The Scottish Sheriff Court in the Seventeenth Century

This The Scottish Sheriff Court in the Seventeenth Century project is offered at University of Dundee.

Sheriff courts were the key regional nodes of both civil and criminal justice in early modern Scotland, but neither they nor their work have been subject to sustained modern analysis. The goal of this The Scottish Sheriff Court in the Seventeenth Century project at University of Dundee is to address that lacuna through detailed investigation of surviving sheriff court records.

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Key questions to be explored as part of the project include:

• What role did sheriff courts play in criminal justice?

• How did sheriff courts interact with other judicial structures, both local and national?

• How far, and in what ways, did sheriff courts facilitate wider participation in the judicial system?

• What was the relationship between sheriff courts’ criminal and civil functions?

• What was the administrative role of sheriff courts?

• How did sheriff courts contribute towards the governance of Scotland?