University of Glasgow School of Law - History

History

At the University's foundation in 1451, there were four original faculties: Arts, Divinity, Law and Medicine. Both Canon and Civil Law were taught, however by the sixteenth Century, instruction in both of these had fallen out of practice. It was during this time that James Dalrymple of Stair came to Glasgow to study for an M.A. (1633-1637) and then became a regent (1641-1647) teaching philosophy. He went on to become Lord President of the Court of Session in 1671, and published his Institutions of the Law of Scotland in 1681, the first systematic exposition of Scots Law. The Stair Building, where the School of Law is housed, is named in his honour.

In 1713, Queen Anne endowed the Regius Chair of Law at the University. The first occupant of the Chair (from 1714) was William Forbes, and subsequent notable Professors have included John Millar, William Gloag, David Walker and Joe Thomson. This revived the teaching of Law at Glasgow, and subsequent Chairs included the Chair of Conveyancing, established in 1861 by the Faculty of Procurators; the Douglas Chair of Civil Law in 1948; the Chair in Jurisprudence (1952); in Public Law (1965); and the John Millar Chair of Law in 1985, named for the previously mentioned Regius Professor of Law.

In 1984, the Faculty of Law became the Faculty of Law and Financial Studies, and in 1992, the individual legal departments were grouped together into the School. In 2005, the Faculty merged with the Faculty of Social Sciences, becoming the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Sciences. On the 1st August 2010 the Faculty of Law, Business and Social Science was combined with the Faculty of Education and the School of Interdisciplinary Studies, Dumfries into a new College of Social Sciences.