Lord President of the Court of Session

Updated on Dec 07, 2024

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Style The Right Honourable		Term length Life tenure
Appointer Monarch on the advice of the First Minister

The Lord President of the Court of Session is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice and the Court of Session. The Lord President is also the Lord Justice General of Scotland and the head of the High Court of Justiciary, the two offices having been combined in 1836. The Lord President has authority over any court established under Scots law, except for the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.

The office of Lord Justice General is derived from the justiciars who were appointed from at least the twelfth century. From around 1567 onwards it was held heritably by the Earl of Argyll until the heritability was resigned to the Crown in 1607.

The current Lord President of the Court of Session is Lord Carloway, who was appointed to the position on 18 December 2015.

In Scotland the Official Oath is taken before the Lord President of the Court of Session.

Justiciars

(called Lord Chief Justices by Scot of Scotstarvet).

Argadus, Captain of Argyll, in the reign of Ethodius

Comes Dunetus; in the reign of King William the Lion. (Donnchad II, Earl of Fife)

William Comyn

Richard Comyn

David, Earl of Huntingdon (died 1219)

Walter Clifford, Justiciary of the Lothians

1216: Allan, Justiciary to King Alexander II

1224: William Cumin, Earl of Buchan (reign of Alexander III)

Walter (died 1241), son of Allan High Steward of Scotland

1239: William, Earl of Ross, "Lord Chief Justice of Scotland"

1243: David de Lindsay, Justiciary of the Lothians

Alexander (d.1283), High Steward of Scotland to King Alexander II

Hugo de Barclay, Justiciary of the Lothians

1253: Alexander Cumin, Earl of Buchan

bef 1319: Sir Robert de Lawedre of The Bass (died Sept 1337), Justiciary of the Lothians

1328: Sir Robert Lauder of Quarrelwood (died between 1367–70), Justiciary North of the Forth

1366: Robert de Erskine, Justiciary South of the Forth for King David II

bef 1372: Alan de Lawedre of The Bass, Whitslaid, & Haltoun, Justiciary South of the Forth, (he received a pension for holding this post in 1374).

1372: Sir William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (died May 1384), Justiciary South of the Forth.

1425: Sir Robert de Lawedre of Edrington & The Bass (d.1451), "Justiciario Scotia"

1437: James Douglas, Earl of Avondale and Lord Balveny

1446: Patrick de Ogilvy, Justiciary South of the Forth

1457: John, Lord Lindsay of the Byres, Justiciary South of the Forth

William Sinclair, 3rd Earl of Orkney & Caithness (d.1480), Justiciary North of the Forth for King James II

1477: John Haldane of Gleneagles, Justiciary North of the Forth

Patrick Hepburn, 1st Lord Hailes (died after 1482), and Robert, 2nd Lord Lyle, Justiciaries South of the Forth

Andrew, Earl of Crawfurd, and George Gordon, 2nd Earl of Huntly, Justiciaries North of the Forth

1488: Robert, 2nd Lord Lyle d.c1497), "Lord Chief Justice"

1489: John Lyon, 3rd Lord Glamis (died 1 April 1497), and John Drummond, 1st Lord Drummond: "Justice-General"

1492: Robert, 2nd Lord Lyle, and John Lyon, 3rd Lord Glamis

1494: John Drummond, 1st Lord Drummond (died c1519)

1504: Andrew Gray, 2nd Lord Gray, and John Kennedy, 2nd Lord Kennedy

1514: Colin Campbell, 3rd Earl of Argyll

1526: Archibald Douglas of Kilspindie

1532: Alexander Mylne, Abbot of Cambuskenneth

1537: Archibald Campbell, 4th Earl of Argyll

1567: Sir Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of Argyll, (d.1584) (heritably)

1578: Sir Colin Campbell, 6th Earl of Argyll, (re-appointment?)

1589: Archibald Campbell, 7th Earl of Argyll, (who exchanged the heritable office of Lord Chief Justice in 1607, for the heritable Lieutenancy of Argyll and Lorn, and most of The Isles).

References

Lord President of the Court of Session Wikipedia

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