ABSTRACT
Prior to the enactment of the Contract (Third Party Rights) (Scotland) Act 2017, Scots law permitted third parties to derive an enforceable benefit from a contract via a jus quaesitum tertio which was irrevocable from its creation. This article examines the historical reasons for the irrevocability requirement, focusing on the formulation of jus quaesitum tertio in James Dalrymple, Viscount Stair’s Institutions of the Law of Scotland. A comparison is made to Roman-Dutch law, where jus quaesitum tertio was revocable before acceptance by the third party. It is argued that Stair’s Calvinist natural law framework led him to adopt a different approach to the creation and revocability of third party rights from Hugo Grotius, whose own natural law ideas were developed within an Arminian framework. This is a more important explanation for the differences between the two jurisdictions than either divergences in legal practice or the influence of canonist or civilian ideas.
Jonathan Ainslie, The Irrevocability of Jus Quaesitum Tertio: Stair and the Roman-Dutch Law, Journal of Legal History. Published online: 12 April 2026.
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