Ad vitam aut culpam

Ad vitam aut culpam (Law Latin,[1][2] which literally means "for life or fault")[3] is a condition of appointment[4] or tenure,[5] and the corresponding principle of appointment,[6] and the corresponding type of appointment[7] or form of tenure,[8] in Scotland. Under the law of Scotland, an office is said to be held ad vitam aut culpam, when the tenure of the possessor is determinable only by his death or delinquency; or, in other words, which is held quamdiu se bene gesserit.[9]

The Claim of Right (1689) provides that the changing "the nature of the judges gifts ad vitam aut culpam into commissions durante beneplacito" is "contrary to law". That provison is subject to section 2(1) of the Judicial Pensions Act 1959 and section 26 of the Judicial Pensions and Retirement Act 1993.

Section 29 of the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 (20 Geo. 2. c. 43) provided that each sheriff depute and stewart depute "shall, during the space of seven years from" 25 March 1748 "be nominated and appointed" with "such continuance as his Majesty, his heirs or successors shall think fit; and that after the end of the said seven years, the offices of sheriff depute and stewart depute shall be granted and held ad vitam aut culpam only".[10] So much of the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 as enacted "that after the end of seven years from and after" 25 March 1748 "the offices of sheriff depute and stewart depute shall be granted and held ad vitam aut culpam" was repealed by the Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1755 (28 Geo. 2. c. 7), which further provided "that the sheriff deputes and stewart deputes already named or hereafter to be named shall, during the space of fifteen years from and after the expiration of the said seven years, hold and enjoy their respective offices for such continuance as his Majesty already hath, or his Majesty, his heirs or successors, shall hereafter think fit to appoint" and "that from and after the end of the said fifteen years, the offices of sheriff depute and stewart depute shall be granted and held ad vitam aut culpam only".[11] The Sheriffs (Scotland) Act 1755 was repealed by the Second Schedule to the Sheriff Courts (Scotland) Act 1907 (7 Edw. 7. c. 51) (which also repealed section 29 of the Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746), and replaced by section 13 of that Act, which did not contain the words "ad vitam aut culpam".

The applicability of this law was decided upon by the House of Lords in the case Stewart v. Secretary of State For Scotland where it was stated that it did not protect a sheriff from dismissal for inability. Further acts of Parliament empowered the Lord President of the Court of Session and the Lord Justice Clerk to remove sheriffs from office due to a personal inability to complete their function – differentiated from a mental incapacity or incapacity due to age. Therefore, ad vitam aut culpam has a limited applicability which does protect an officer from dismissal if they are incompetent.[12]

  1. ^ Burrill. A Law Dictionary and Glossary. 2nd Ed. 1859. vol 1. p 49.
  2. ^ Brewer. Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. New Edition. 1895. p 13.
  3. ^ Wood. Dictionary of Quotations. 1893. p 4
  4. ^ "National Education" in "Monthly Retrospect" (1868) 12 United Presbyterian Magazine (New Series) 96 (February 1868). "The Retirement of Professors in the Scottish Universities" (1895) 2 British Medical Journal 1386 at 1387 (30 November 1895). Stevenson, Fulfilling a Vision, Pickwick Publications, 2012, p 132.
  5. ^ Robertson and others v Keillor (1864) 3 Sheriff Court Reports (New Series) 108; Trustees of the Woodside Institution v Keillor (1865) 4 Session Cases 9, Scots Revised Reports (Macpherson IV) 68; Murray v Morton (1878) 6 Session Cases (Fourth Series) 26 at 30.
  6. ^ "National Education" (1867) 4 Museum and English Journal of Education 138. Bell, "Alexander Monro primus and the ad vitam aut culpam principle" (1965) 10 Journal of the Royal College of Surgeons Edinburgh 324. John McGowan, Policing the Metropolis of Scotland, 2nd Ed, Turlough Publishers, 2012, p 62.
  7. ^ For sources that speak of "ad vitam aut culpam appointment(s)", see for example Irons, The Burgh Police (Scotland) Act, 1892, William Green and Sons, 1893, p 135; (1887) 15 Poor Law Magazine and Parochial Journal 122.
  8. ^ Bradley and Christie. The Scotland Act 1978. W Green & Son. 1979. p 51/54. (1913) 13 The Nation 17 (5 April 1913).
  9. ^ Watson. Bell's Dictionary and Digest of the Law of Scotland. 7th Ed. 1890. p 26. See further pages 79, 603, 1007 and 1131.
  10. ^ The Statutes: Second Revised Edition, 1889, vol 2, p 208
  11. ^ The Statutes: Second Revised Edition, 1889, vol 2, p 300
  12. ^ Heritable Jurisdictions (Scotland) Act 1746 "Stewart v. Secretary of State for Scotland". Office of Public Sector Information. Archived from the original on 3 November 2007.