Stair Society
a learned society devoted to the study of Scots law. It was instituted in 1934 "to encourage the study and to advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law
The Stair Society is a learned society devoted to the study of Scots law. It was instituted in 1934 "to encourage the study and to advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law," and is named after James Dalrymple, 1st Viscount of Stair, the seventeenth century Lord President of the Court of Session considered the most important of Scots Law's Institutional Writers. It can compared to the Selden Society, an organisation devoted to the study of English legal history.
Society
The society has around three hundred and thirty five members from Scotland and around the world. The society holds an annual general meeting in November, which includes a guest lecture. Recent distinguished figures to have addressed the society included Alan Watson, Rogers Professor at the University of Georgia School of Law, and John H. Langbein, Sterling Professor of Law and Legal History at Yale Law School. The society is run by a council, chaired by John Ford, professor of civil law at the University of Aberdeen School of Law. The president of the society is Lady Wolffe.
As part of its aim of furthering study Scots legal history, the Stair Society produces printed and electronic publications, specifically an annual volume along with occasional other publications. The society's literary director is Mark Godfrey, professor of legal history at the University of Glasgow School of Law.
“Stair Society” enters the record as a learned society devoted to the study of Scots law. It was instituted in 1934 "to encourage the study and to advance the knowledge of the history of Scots Law. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Stair, Society and learned can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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“Stair Society” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Stair, Society and learned provides the most credible route into that argument.
Chronology, provenance and viewpoint should be read together before a broad social or political interpretation is accepted. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 1, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7597089. VIAF identifies the subject as 141309091. The Library of Congress control number is n50080540. 4 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1934.
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This entry incorporates text from “Stair Society” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.