Professor John W Cairns, Professor of Civil Law, presents his inaugural lecture entitled "An Uncommon Law?". The first discipline in law taught in the University of Edinburgh was the Civil Law. It has been taught continuously for the past 303 years. Comparative lawyers have traditionally seen the “Civil Law” as something opposed to the “Common Law”. The lecture will explore the founding of the chair of Civil Law in 1710 against the intellectual and political background before considering the nature of the discipline, and reflecting on its nature as a true universal law. Recorded on 22 November 2013 at the University of Edinburgh's Old College.