Sir Neil MacCormick (1940–2009) was a the world-renowned legal philosopher and prominent Scottish public intellectual who held the Regius Chair in Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at Edinburgh University for 36 years. MacCormick's work and works about MacCormick attract both a domestic and an international audience. Readers will gain an understanding of how MacCormick's Scottish roots, interests and commitments coloured his work – both his distinctively Scottish writings and the overall intellectual outlook that informed his broader legal and philosophical writings.
Focusing on a number of prominent Scottish themes in MacCormick's work and life, this volume is structured around four key themes: 1) the nature and identity of a legal system; 2) sovereignty, European integration and Scottish independence; 3) the legacy of the legal and political thought of the Scottish enlightenment; and 4) the role of the academic in the Scottish public sphere.