Scots civil procedure governs the rules of civil procedure

Civil procedure

Civil procedure is the body of law that sets out the rules and standards that courts follow when adjudicating civil lawsuits...

 in Scotland

Scotland

Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

. It deals with the jurisdiction of Scottish civil courts

Courts of Scotland

The civil, criminal and heraldic Courts of Scotland are responsible for the administration of justice. They are constituted and governed by Scots law....

, namely the Court of Session

Court of Session

The Court of Session is the supreme civil court of Scotland, and constitutes part of the College of Justice. It sits in Parliament House in Edinburgh and is both a court of first instance and a court of appeal....

 and Sheriff Court

Sheriff Court

Sheriff courts provide the local court service in Scotland, with each court serving a sheriff court district within a sheriffdom.Sheriff courts deal with a myriad of legal procedures which include:*Solemn and Summary Criminal cases...

s. Civil procedure is generally regulated by Acts of Sederunt

Act of Sederunt

Act of Sederunt in Scots law, is an ordinance for regulating the forms of judicial procedure before the Court of Session , Sheriff Courts in civil session, and for setting fees for Messengers-at-arms and Sheriff officers...

 which are ordinance

Scottish Statutory Instrument

A Scottish Statutory Instrument is a form of secondary legislation in Scotland which is made under Scots law by Scottish Ministers and other Scottish authorities such as the Court of Session, through Acts of Sederunt, or the High Court of Justiciary, through Acts of Adjournal...

s passed by the Court of Session. Rules for the functioning of the Court of Session are generally decided upon by the Court of Session Rules Council, which was instituted by the Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933

Administration of Justice (Scotland) Act 1933

The Administration of Justice Act 1933 is an act of the Parliament at Westminster legislating for Scotland which introduced changes in Scottish legal procedure "following the recommendations of a Royal Commission which reported in 1927"....

 and reconfirmed by the Court of Session Act 1988 and those for the Sheriff Court are agreed on by the Sheriff Court Rules Council, which is the body responsible for reviewing the Sheriff Court civil procedure under review. Primary legislation

Primary legislation

Primary legislation is law made by the legislative branch of government. This contrasts with secondary legislation, which is usually made by the executive branch...

 may alse be enacted to regulate civil procedure, such as the Civil Evidence (Scotland) Act 1988 which removed requirements for corroborating evidence

Corroborating evidence

Corroborating evidence is evidence that tends to support a proposition that is already supported by some evidence, therefore confirming the proposition. For example, W, a witness, testifies that she saw X drive his automobile into a green car...

.

Since the enactment of the Human Rights Act 1998

Human Rights Act 1998

The Human Rights Act 1998 is an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom which received Royal Assent on 9 November 1998, and mostly came into force on 2 October 2000. Its aim is to "give further effect" in UK law to the rights contained in the European Convention on Human Rights...

, civil procedure has increasingly been shaped by case law from the European Court of Human Rights

European Court of Human Rights

The European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg is a supra-national court established by the European Convention on Human Rights and hears complaints that a contracting state has violated the human rights enshrined in the Convention and its protocols. Complaints can be brought by individuals or...

.

Proposed reform of civil procedure

In 2009 Lord Gill, the Lord Justice Clerk, delivered his Scottish Civil Courts Review which was heralded as the "most far-reaching reform of Scotland's civil justice system in nearly two centuries".

Among his 206 proposals were:

• a major shift of work from the Court of Session to sheriff courts,
• removal of the the jurisdictional overlap between those courts,
• specialisation of sheriffs in areas such as family law, commerce, personal injury,
• new district judges to deal with less legally complicated and low-value civil actions such as small claims and housing disputes.

In November 2010 the Scottish Government released its response to the Review accepting "the majority of Lord Gill's recommendations" including expressly the following proposals:

• "Civil court business should be reallocated to more appropriate levels, with a far greater proportion of civil court business to be heard by the sheriff courts
• "A specialised personal injury court should be established as part of Edinburgh Sheriff Court
• "The creation of a new Sheriff Appeal Court
• "The introduction of a new role of District Judge
• "Adoption of an improved and more active approach to case management
• "The introduction of designated specialist judges"

In October 2011, the Scottish Government announced consultation on appointments to a new Scottish Civil Justice Council to draft rules of procedure for civil proceedings in the Court of Session and sheriff court. The establishment of the Council was one of Lord Gill's 2009 recommendations.