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The shape of the state in Medieval Scotland, 1124–1290

This volume represents a truly remarkable scholarly achievement. Without doubt, it is the single most significant work to be published on the Scottish legal system during the central Middle Ages in over 20 years. And yet it does more. Its revolutionary conclusions convincingly explain how the laws of the realm were transformed by shifting power structures in twelfth-century and thirteenth-century Scotland. Furthermore, it achieves this goal in such a way as to demonstrate that the Scottish experience is of great comparative significance. Those working on the role that law and law-makers played in state-formation elsewhere in contemporary Europe should engage seriously with the rigorous research displayed in this book. This review article will take some time outlining Alice Taylor’s conclusions and will also offer some comments concerning the challenges they present to orthodoxy.