Alexander Falconer Murison

Who was Alexander Falconer Murison?

A. F. Murison, MA, LLD, KC. was an eminent Professor of Roman Law and Jurisprudence at University College, London and at Oxford University. He was a prolific writer for newspapers and journals in a wide variety of subjects with comparatively few publications in his specialism of Roman Law. He collated the text of Theophilus' Greek paraphrasis of Justinian's Institutes but failed to finish his extensive work in this field. However, his translation of Theophilus was published in 2010 as the parallel English text accompanying the Greek in the new edition. He also wrote two biographical works in Scottish history: Sir William Wallace and King Robert the Bruce in the Famous Scots Series published by Oliphant, Anderson and Ferrier. Lack of money took him into journalism and he was editor of the Educational Times from 1902 to 1912 and on the staff of the Daily Chronicle. He even had time to enter politics and he stood as a Liberal Party candidate in at least three General Elections: for the Glasgow and Aberdeen Universities constituency in 1906 and for the Glasgow Central constituency in December 1910 and January 1910 and lost on all three occasions to a Conservative candidate.