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Professor Angelo Forte (1949–2012) held the Chair of Commercial Law at the University of Aberdeen between 1993 and 2010. During that time, he made significant scholarly contributions to commercial law, Scots private law and legal history. As a commercial lawyer and a former solicitor, he was committed to the production of high-quality research that could engage with the needs of business and commerce. He was also particularly interested in exploring the extent to which legal change had occurred as the result of purely practical considerations, such as alterations in commercial reality. In this regard he advanced our understanding of the influence of English law in eighteenth-century Scotland. Latterly he also advanced our understanding of laws that seem to have been applied among some of the Gaelic-speaking peoples of Scotland almost a thousand years ago. His eclectic writings were highly esteemed both at home and abroad. His rigour as a scholar proved inspirational to several generations of students, and it also led to a wide range of international collaborations. In the present volume, several of Angelo’s former students and colleagues seek to honour his memory by advancing lines of scholarly enquiry that he pursued. As indicated by the title of the book, a range of contributors reflect on the ways in which the purely practical or pragmatic concerns of lawyers can shape legal change. The ground covered in the book – ranging from medieval legal history to the reform of credit rating agencies – reflects the great eclecticism of Angelo’s own interests. It is hoped that this will form a fitting tribute to a great gentleman and scholar.

This volume of essays on property law and comparative law was published in memory of Professor David Carey Miller. Throughout his career, David enjoyed the respect and esteem of his mentors, friends, colleagues and students within the School of Law at Aberdeen University, and in the wider legal communities of Scotland and his native South Africa. The essays in this volume have been organised in broad terms according to a scheme that will be familiar to those who study Scots private law, and indeed civilian systems more generally. The first nine substantive essays are concerned with property law. The next four chapters focus on the law of obligations – one being concerned with delict, one with contract and one with unjustified enrichment. The final, and longest, chapter in the book considers a neglected aspect of the law of succession.Thus the core themes that emerge from this volume reflect and engage critically with many of Carey Miller’s own scholarly concerns