BURGH LAWS (Leges Burgorum), in Scottish legal history, was the name given to a collection of ancient laws relative to burghs, which claim to have been enacted in the reign of King David I. in the 12th century. See REGIAM MAJESTATEM.
In the United States of America and in the British colonies, cities and towns have grown up and have been organised in accordance with (speaking generally) the most enlightened ideas of modern civic life. According to the opinion of American constitutional lawyers, the city or borough organisation is regarded as a grant from the state for the purpose of carrying out minor matters of civil government in urban communities. It has attached to it the general powers inherent in all corporate bodies, with powers to make bye-laws.
See the articles BURGESS, CITY, CORPORATION, COUNTY, EDUCATION, GUILDS, LICENSING LAWS, LIVERY, LOCAL GOVERNMENT, MAYOR, MUNICIPALITY, PARLIAMENT, PROVOST, and TOWNSHIP; Gneist, Self-government (3d ed. 1871) and other works; the Cobden Club Essays on Local Government and Taxation (1875 and 1882); Rogers, Registration, Parliamentary and Municipal (new ed. by Carter, 1887; books on the law of municipal corporations by Arnold, Chambers, Lely, Owen, Rawlinson, Saunders, Vine, &c.; Mrs Green, Town Life in the 15th Century (1894); Albert Shaw, Municipal Government in Great Britain (1895); F. J. Goodnow, Municipal Home-Rule (1895); and F. Dolman, Municipalities at Work (1895). For information regarding the history of boroughs, see Maine's Early Institutions and Stubbs' Constitutional History.