Definition
The Book of Adjournal is the official record book of the High Court of Justiciary, Scotland's supreme criminal court. It contains the formal written record of criminal proceedings conducted before that court, including indictments, pleas, verdicts, sentences, and other procedural acts entered in the course of criminal trials. The term is specific to Scots law and has no direct equivalent in English or American legal systems.
The word "adjournal" derives from the Latin adjournment practice of the court but in this context functions as a term of art identifying the court's formal register rather than describing a postponement. The Book of Adjournal is, in essence, the authoritative contemporaneous record of the High Court of Justiciary's criminal jurisdiction — the official minutes of the court's proceedings in their permanent, bound form.
Why It Matters in Research
This term will appear almost exclusively in sources touching on Scottish criminal law, legal history, or comparative common law scholarship. Researchers encountering it in historical texts should understand several things:
First, the Book of Adjournal is a primary source, not a secondary commentary. References to it in treatises or law dictionaries are pointing researchers toward an archival record held in Scotland — historically at Register House in Edinburgh and now largely within the care of the National Records of Scotland. If your research requires verification of an 18th or 19th century Scottish criminal trial, this is the foundational document series.
Second, the term is jurisdiction-locked. It appears in works on Scots law written for Scottish practitioners and judges. When American or English legal dictionaries include it — as Black's and Bouvier's do — they are typically cataloguing it as a foreign or comparative term for the benefit of lawyers who might encounter it in treatises or cross-jurisdictional scholarship. Do not expect the term to translate into any analogous American or English court record concept without careful qualification.
Third, the corpus distinction matters: sources that describe the Book of Adjournal as "records of criminal trials" (Black's) versus the broader "records of the court of justiciary" (Bouvier's) reflect slightly different framings of the same institution. The distinction is minor but signals that Bouvier's definition is marginally more accurate — the records encompass procedural and interlocutory matters beyond trial transcripts strictly defined.
Fourth, researchers using 18th and 19th century Scottish legal sources — particularly works by David Hume (Commentaries on the Law of Scotland Respecting Crimes) or Alison's Practice of the Criminal Law of Scotland — will find references to the Book of Adjournal as a citation authority. Understanding what it is prevents confusion with later printed law reports.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both Black's and Bouvier's treat this term identically in function: it is a reference entry for an unfamiliar Scots law concept, included for completeness rather than because American practitioners would routinely use it. Black's is slightly more precise — "original records of criminal trials" — while Bouvier's is broader — "records of the court of justiciary." Neither definition is wrong, but neither is complete.
What the historical dictionaries do not convey: the Book of Adjournal is not a single volume but a continuous series of registers maintained over centuries, constituting one of Scotland's most significant legal archives. The records date from the 16th century onward. Historical dictionary entries treat it as a static object; in practice it is a living archival series that grew with the court's caseload over time. Neither dictionary contextualizes it within the broader structure of Scots criminal procedure or explains its relationship to the printed reports of Scottish criminal cases that began appearing in the 19th century.
Jurisdictional Note
Strictly a Scottish law term. The High Court of Justiciary is Scotland's supreme criminal court and has exclusive jurisdiction over the most serious criminal offenses under Scots law. The Book of Adjournal has no counterpart in English law or any American jurisdiction. Researchers working in purely English or American law contexts will encounter this term only in comparative or historical scholarship.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
The Law Mind Criminal Law Encyclopedia does not contain an entry directly addressing Scottish criminal procedure or the High Court of Justiciary. The entries on Booking, Initial Appearance, and First Hearing (criminal_195) and Miranda — Exceptions (criminal_165) address American criminal procedure concepts that are structurally distinct from the Scots law institution described here. No cross-reference is warranted.