John Millar, Ivan Andreyevich Tret’yakov, and Semyon Efimovich Desnitsky: A Legal Education in Scotland, 1761–1767

This chapter examines the influence of John Millar on two young Russian students, Semyon Efmovich Desnitsky and Ivan Andreyevich Tret'yakov, who arrived to study in Glasgow University in 1761, the year Millar was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law. Millar attracted pupils from all over Great Britain and Ireland. He even had Russian pupils on whom he exerted demonstrable influence. As a teacher, Millar moved classes in law from a still traditional focus inherited from the Dutch law schools to instruction informed by the approach and learning of the Scottish Enlightenment. The chapter considers what Desnitsky and Tret'yakov learned from Millar. On their return to Moscow, both Desnitsky and Tret'yakov were in favour of the change to lecturing in Russian rather than in Latin in the University of Moscow — a move that could be attributed to their experience of legal education in the University of Glasgow and, in particular, of Millar's lectures.