THE ENGLISH AND SCOTCH LEGAL SYSTEMS.

New Zealand Times, Volume LI, Issue 8878, 3 January 1890, Page 2

THE ENGLISH AND SCOTCH LEGAL SYSTEMS.

The Maybrick case has drawn attention to some of the important differences which still exist between the legal systems of England and Sootland. It is somewhat extraordinary, in view of the prolonged and close intimacy which has existed between the two countries for so many years, that each has been so slow to correct the defects of its own system by copying the excellencies of the other.' As regards the general legal systems this is, perhaps, not so unintelligible; for it must not be forgotten that the whole system of law in Scotland is founded upon the principles of Roman jurisprudence, whereas the greater part of the early history of English law is noteworthy for the prolonged opposition offered by our legislators and lawyers to any adoption of the ideas first of Roman, and afterwards of the Canon law. Owing to these facta, Scotch law has gained in clearness of principle what it has lost in elasticity, whilst English law is flexible, but lacking in system. A familiar instance of this result is the fact that the commercial law of Scotland is in many respects antiquated and unsnited to the conditions of modern trade, whilst the commercial law of England is well abreast of the times. But undoubtedly in the region of criminal law England might well take a leaf or two out of Scotland's book. A universal , lament has been made that, in the recent Maybrick case, it was not possible for the jury to return the Scottish verdict of ‘Nos proven, ’ the effect of which would have been to free the prisoner from punishment, but not from the life-long stigma of the charge brought against her. The .Scottish practice certainly leans more towards mercy. In the case of Madeleine Smith, where the evidence against the prisoner was much stronger than that against Mrs Maybrick, although a doubt of a Similar kind existed, the jury found the verdict of ‘ Not proven.’ As regards that verdict itself, it is a point worthy of note that, according to a passage in Alison’s Practice of the Criminal Law in Scotland (p. 639), it seems possible that it arose accidentally, and was at first equivalent to an ordinary verdict of ‘Not guilty,’ However that may be, its value to a conscientious jury is undoubted.