ADVOCATES, FACULTY OF

the members of the bar of Scotland. Barristers are the comparable group in England. The faculty grew out of the Scots Act of 1532, which established the Court of Session in Scotland. The advocates had, and still have, the sole right of audience in the Court of Session and High Court of Justiciary. They constitute a self-governing faculty under annually elected officers. When properly instructed by an agency of the law, an advocate is bound and entitled to plead in any court in Scotland and also before the House of Lords, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, and committees of Parliament. See also Scottish law.