This study investigates the important role of Scotland's College of Justice members in the cultural and economic flowering of Scotland as a whole, and Edinburgh in particular, and argues that a single Law institution had a marked influence on the Scottish cultural landscape to the present day. The Court of Session records, uncovered by John Finlay, show a cross-section of Scottish society experiencing Edinburgh's legal processes in the 18th century.

18th-century Edinburgh owed much to the men who worked in the Court of Session as members of the unique institution known as the College of Justice. James Boswell, Lord Kames, Henry Dundas and Walter Scott are just some of those who emerged from the College to influence Scotland's place in Europe.