author
William Guthrie
1835–1908
A Scottish lawyer, judge, and legal writer, he helped make complex questions of Scots law and private international law clearer for both students and practitioners. His career joined public service with careful scholarship, leaving behind influential legal texts as well as judicial work.
1 Audiobook
Second Shetland Truck System Report
by William Guthrie
About the author
Born in 1835, William Guthrie built his career at the Scottish bar and became known for both legal writing and public service. He edited the Journal of Jurisprudence from 1867 to 1874 and also served as an official reporter of cases decided in the Court of Session.
His work as an author and editor focused on making difficult legal material usable. He translated and annotated Friedrich Carl von Savigny's Private International Law, wrote on trade union law, and prepared editions of major Scottish legal texts, including George Joseph Bell's Principles of the Law of Scotland.
Guthrie later held important judicial and administrative posts, becoming registrar of friendly societies for Scotland in 1872, a sheriff-substitute of Lanarkshire in 1874, and Sheriff of Lanarkshire in 1903. He died in 1908, remembered as a respected Scottish legal scholar whose books and editions helped shape how law was studied and applied.