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Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747

The Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1747 (21 Geo. 2. c. 19) was an act of the Parliament of Great Britain which applied only to Scotland.

Section 1 of the act provided that anyone who was prosecuted on or after 1 April 1748 for treason or misprision of treason could be tried anywhere in Scotland if the crime had been committed in any of the shires of Dunbartain, Stirling, Perth, Kincardine, Aberdeen, Inverness, Nairn, Cromarty, Argyll, Forfarshire, Banff, Sutherland, Caithness, Elgine, Ross, and Orkney. Normally a crime had to be tried in the shire where it had been committed.

Section 2 of the provided that in such a trial, the jurors could come from adjoining counties, instead of (as would otherwise be the case) the county where the trial was held.

Section 3 of the act also provided that His Majesty's Advocate could move the trial to the High Court of Justiciary.

Section 4 of the act that peers had the right to be tried by their peers.

Section 5 of the act provided that sections 1 to 5 of the act expired after seven years, but were later revived again for another seven years in 1760 by the (33 Geo. 2. c. 26).

Section 12 of the act also began the process of grouping the smaller shires into a single sheriffdom, by creating shared sheriffdoms for:

Subsequent developments

The whole act was repealed by section 4 of, and the schedule to, the Circuit Courts and Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1925 (15 & 16 Geo. 5. c. 81).

Notes

References

  • The Scots Statutes Revised. W Green and Sons. 1899. Volume 1. Page 80.
  • The Public General Statutes Affecting Scotland. William Blackwood and Sons. Edinburgh. 1876. Volume 1. Pages 121 and 122.
  • Statutes at Large, vol. XIX, Danby Pickering, Cambridge University Press, 1765.
  • Walker. A Legal History of Scotland. W Green. 1988. Volume 6. Pages 356 and 454. 2004. Volume 7. Page 633.
  • Robson and Rodger. The Spaces of Justice: The Architecture of the Scottish Court. Farleigh Dickinson University Press. Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group. 2018. Pages 34 and 36.

See also