'There are indeed certain laws generally and frequently used in the courts which it does not seem to me absurd or presumptuous to commit to writing. And so some of these I have decided to render in writing at the command of the Lord King David.' Prologue to Regiam Majestatum, derived from the prologue to Glanvill Explores the relationship between law and society and brings a key legal history text back to life. The close links between the Scots and English law in the Middle Ages have long been recognised, but this classic text assesses the relevance of traditional approaches to Scottish legal history, setting the development of medieval law within the context of a society in which private lordship, exercised through courts and other less formal methods of dispute settlement, played a key role alongside royal justice. Based on extensive research, this book examines the brieves of novel dissasine, mortancestry and right, and legal remedies for the recovery of land, as well as aspects of the early history of the Scottish legal profession and the origins of the Court of Session. Hector MacQueen has been a member of the Edinburgh Law School since 1979. Appointed to the Chair of Private Law in 1994, he was Dean of the Law School 1999-2003, and Dean of Research and Deputy Head of the College of Humanities and Social Science in the University 2004-2008. He is currently a Scottish Law Commissioner. He is the author of many books and articles on Scots law and its historical development in comparative perspective, and of key textbooks such as Contract Law in Scotland (3rd edition, 2012), Unjustified Enrichment Law Basics (3rd edition, 2013), and Studying Scots Law (4th edition, 2012).