John Burnett

Who is John Burnett?

John Burnett was a Scottish advocate, judge and legal scholar.

He was the son of William Burnett, procurator-at-law in Aberdeen, where he was born about 1764. He was admitted advocate at Edinburgh University on 10 December 1785. In 1792 he was appointed advocate-depute, and in October 1803 sheriff of Haddingtonshire. In April 1810 he became judge-admiral of Scotland. He was also for some time counsel for the city of Aberdeen. He died on 8 December 1810, while his work on the Criminal Law of Scotland was passing through the press. It was published in 1811. Though in certain respects imperfect and misleading, it is a work of great merit, the more especially that it is one of the earliest attempts to form a satisfactory collection of decisions in criminal cases.