Court of Session in the context of "Supreme Courts of Scotland"

The courts of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Cùirtean na h-Alba) are responsible for administration of justice in Scotland, under statutory, common law and equitable provisions within Scots law. The courts are presided over by the judiciary of Scotland, who are the various judicial office holders responsible for issuing judgments, ensuring fair trials, and deciding on sentencing. The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, subject to appeals to the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, and the High Court of Justiciary is the supreme criminal court, which is only subject to the authority of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom on devolution issues and human rights compatibility issues.

The judiciary of Scotland, except the Lord Lyon King of Arms, are united under the leadership and authority of the Lord President and Lord Justice General, who is the president of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary. The Court of Session has the authority, under the Courts Reform (Scotland) Act 2014, to regulate civil procedure through passing subordinate legislation knows as Acts of Sederunt, and the High Court of Justiciary has the authority to regulate criminal procedure through passing Acts of Adjournal. Both Acts of Sederunt and Acts of Adjournal have the capacity to amend primary legislation where it deals with civil or criminal procedure respectively.

The United Kingdom constitutional law concerns the governance of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. With the oldest continuous political system on Earth, the British constitution is not contained in a single code but principles have emerged over centuries from common law statute, case law, political conventions and social consensus. In 1215, Magna Carta required the King to call "common counsel" or Parliament, hold courts in a fixed place, guarantee fair trials, guarantee free movement of people, free the church from the state, and it enshrined the rights of "common" people to use the land. After the English Civil War and the Glorious Revolution 1688, Parliament won supremacy over the monarch, the church and the courts, and the Bill of Rights 1689 recorded that the "election of members of Parliament ought to be free". The Act of Union 1707 unified England, Wales and Scotland, while Ireland was joined in 1800, but the Republic of Ireland formally separated between 1916 and 1921 through bitter armed conflict. By the Representation of the People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928, almost every adult man and woman was finally entitled to vote for Parliament. The UK was a founding member of the International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations, the Commonwealth, the Council of Europe, and the World Trade Organization (WTO).

The constitutional principles of parliamentary sovereignty, the rule of law, democracy and internationalism guide the UK's modern political system. The central institutions of modern government are Parliament, the judiciary, the executive, the civil service and public bodies which implement policies, and regional and local governments. Parliament is composed of the House of Commons, elected by voter constituencies, and the House of Lords which is mostly appointed on the recommendation of cross-political party groups. To make a new Act of Parliament, the highest form of law, both Houses must read, amend, or approve proposed legislation three times. The judiciary is headed by a twelve-member Supreme Court. Underneath are the Court of Appeal for England and Wales, the Court of Appeal in Northern Ireland, and the Court of Session for Scotland. Below these lie a system of high courts, Crown courts, or tribunals depending on the subject in the case. Courts interpret statutes, progress the common law and principles of equity, and can control the discretion of the executive. While the courts may interpret the law, they have no power to declare an Act of Parliament unconstitutional. The executive is headed by the Prime Minister, who must command a majority in the House of Commons. The Prime Minister appoints a cabinet of people who lead each department, and form His Majesty's Government. The King himself is a ceremonial figurehead, who gives royal assent to new laws. By constitutional convention, the monarch does not usurp the democratic process and has not refused royal assent since the Scottish Militia Bill in 1708. Beyond the Parliament and cabinet, a civil service and a large number of public bodies, from the Department of Education to the National Health Service, deliver public services that implement the law and fulfil political, economic and social rights.

The judiciary of Scotland (Scottish Gaelic: Breitheamh na h-Alba) are the judicial office holders who sit in the courts of Scotland and make decisions in both civil and criminal cases. Judges make sure that cases and verdicts are within the parameters set by Scots law, and they must hand down appropriate judgments and sentences. Judicial independence is guaranteed in law, with a legal duty on Scottish Ministers, the Lord Advocate and the Members of the Scottish Parliament to uphold judicial independence, and barring them from influencing the judges through any form of special access.

The Lord President of the Court of Session is the head of Scotland's judiciary and the presiding judge of the College of Justice (which consists of the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary.) The Lord President is Lord Pentland, who was appointed in February of 2025. The Lord President is supported by the Judicial Office for Scotland which was established on 1 April 2010 as a result of the Judiciary and Courts (Scotland) Act 2008, and the Lord President chairs the corporate board of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service.

Parliament House (Scottish Gaelic: Taigh na Pàrlamaid), located in the Old Town in Edinburgh, Scotland, is a historic parliament and court building containing several buildings which now houses the Supreme Courts of Scotland, the Scottish Land Court and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. The oldest part of the complex, known as Parliament Hall, was home to the Parliament of Scotland from 1639 to 1707, and was the world's first purpose-built parliament building. The complex is spread across seven floors, and contains 700 rooms, with the original building first designed and built by James Gordon of Rothiemay in 1649, costing £10,555 which was paid for by Edinburgh Town Council.

Prior to the construction of Parliament House, the Parliament of Scotland, the Court of Session and the Privy Council of Scotland all shared the same building which was located in the Tolbooth in Edinburgh. By 1632, it had become clear that the sharing of space between the three was inadequate, with Charles I demanding that Edinburgh Town Council provide a "suitable alternative". As a result, the town council proposed plans to create a new purpose-built parliament building which would also house the Court of Session on the same site, but faced difficulties in securing funds for the construction. The estimated cost was £11,630 sterling, or £127,000 Scots, the equivalent of £30 million by recent times. It was paid for by a number of subscriptions from Edinburgh residents, as well as a series of loans which "remained a burden on Edinburgh's finances for many years".

The High Court of Justiciary (Scottish Gaelic: Àrd-chùirt a' Cheartais) is the supreme criminal court in Scotland. The High Court is both a trial court and a court of appeal. As a trial court, the High Court sits on circuit at Parliament House or in the adjacent Justiciary Building (the former Sheriff Court building) in the Old Town in Edinburgh, or in dedicated buildings in Glasgow and Aberdeen. The High Court sometimes sits in various smaller towns in Scotland, where it uses the local sheriff court building. As an appeal court, the High Court sits only in Edinburgh. On one occasion the High Court of Justiciary sat outside Scotland, at Zeist in the Netherlands during the Pan Am Flight 103 bombing trial, as the Scottish Court in the Netherlands. At Zeist the High Court sat both as a trial court, and an appeal court for the initial appeal by Abdelbaset al-Megrahi.

The president of the High Court is the Lord Justice General, who holds office ex officio by virtue of being Lord President of the Court of Session, and his depute is the Lord Justice Clerk. The remaining judges are the Lords Commissioners of Justiciary, who hold office ex officio by virtue of being appointed as Senators of the College of Justice and judges of the Court of Session. As a court of first instance trials are usually heard with a jury of 15 and a single Lord Commissioner of Justiciary; the jury can convict on a majority verdict. In some cases, such as the trial of Abdelbaset al-Megrahi and Lamin Khalifah Fhimah for the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103, a trial can be heard by a bench of judges alone; sitting without a jury. As an appeal court the hearings are always without a jury, with two judges sitting to hear an appeal against sentence, and three judges sit to hear an appeal against conviction.

The Lord President of the Court of Session and Lord Justice General (Scottish Gaelic: Àrd-mhorair Cùirt an t-Seisein) is the most senior judge in Scotland, the head of the judiciary, and the presiding judge of the College of Justice, the Court of Session, and the High Court of Justiciary. The Lord President holds the title of Lord Justice General of Scotland and the head of the High Court of Justiciary ex officio, as the two offices were combined in 1836. The Lord President has authority over any court established under Scots law, except for the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom and the Court of the Lord Lyon.

The current Lord President of the Court of Session is Lord Pentland, who was appointed to the position on 3 February 2025 succeeding Lord Carloway They are paid according to salary group 1.1 of the Judicial Salaries Scale, which in 2016 was £222,862.