DIFFERENT LAWS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23021, 26 April 1938, Page 14

DIFFERENT LAWS

ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND TWO DISTINCT SYSTEMS LEGAL PRACTICE RESTRICTED [BV TELEGRAPH —OWN CORRESPONDENT] WELLINGTON, Monday An extraordinary anomaly whereby entirely different laws govern Scotland and England was commented on by Mr. John S. Mercer, K.C., formerly Sheriff Principal of Lanarkshire, Scotland, who arrived by the Franconia yesterdav. "Conservative Scots at the time of the union stipulated that they should be permitted to keep their own system of law," said Mr. Mercer. "It is a curious position. It is as if your North and South Islands had each a separate code of laws. "The two legal systems have remained entirely distinct, although much of the commercial law and statutory law is the same throughout England and Scotland," added Mr. Mercer. "Three-quarters of Scots law, which is not statutory, is directly derived from old Boman law. It was imported into Scotland through Holland long before the union." In particular the laws of heritable property and of family relationships were wholly different from anything in England, continued Mr. Mercer. In consequence, if one were called to the Bar, one's practising was restricted to Scotland, and one came in little contact with the English legal profession except in the highest Courts of the land. . Mr. Mercer said his headquarters were at Glasgow, the second city of Great Britain. There was at present a steady concentration of the Scottish population toward the, Clyde, and Glasgow's trade and commerce were growing apace. Referring to the gang troubles of the poorer districts of Glasgow, Mr. Mercer said they had never been as formidable as was made out. Gang trouble was now a thing of the past. It had never been out of the control of _ the police, and had been almost invariably based on religious difficulties. The clashes were between rival factions of Irish migrants from Northern Ireland and from the Free State. Mr. Mercer retired from' practice a few months ago and decided the first use he would make of his unaccustomed leisure would be to see the world from the Franconia.