"This Kiss, This Kiss..."

Hector Lewis MacQueen, University of Edinburgh, School of Law, has published Ae Fond Kiss: A Private Matter? in Judge and Jurist: Essays in Memory of Lord Rodger of Earlsferry 473 (Oxford 2013). Here is the abstract.

The Ben Beinart Memorial Lecture given at the University of Cape Town on 16 April 2013. The paper discusses the 1804 case of Cadell & Davies v Stewart, in which the existence of rights to publish or to prevent publication of private letters between the poet Robert Burns and his close friend Agnes McLehose was ventilated at length by the advocates and judges appearing in the court. The paper assesses the evidence for what really happened between Burns and Agnes, and discusses the contemporary significance of the court's decision to prevent publication.

Download the essay from SSRN at the link.