George Joseph Bell was born in the Fountainbridge district of Edinburgh on 26 March 1770. He was the elder brother of Professor Sir Charles Bell (1774-1842). Like his brother, he was educated at home though he also attended some lectures at Edinburgh University, certainly in 1788. He was admitted as an advocate in 1791, and having devoted himself to the systematic study of Scottish mercantile law he published the two volumes of A treatise on the laws of bankruptcy in Scotland (1804). This was followed by an enlarged and improved version with the title Commentaries on the laws of Scotland and on the principles of mercantile jurisprudence considered in relation to bankruptcy, compositions of creditors, and imprisonment for debt (1810). In 1822, Bell was appointed as Professor of Scots Law at Edinburgh University, and in 1823 he was commissioned to report on the forms of process in the Scottish courts of law and the course of appeals from the Scottish Court of Session to the House of Lords. This led to the Scottish Judicature Act of 1825. In 1833 he was appointed Chairman of the Commission looking at draft proposals for the amendment of Scottish law relating to bankruptcy proceedings. The report led to the Scottish Bankruptcy Act, 1839. Bell's other publications included Principles of the law of Scotland, for the use of students in the University of Edinburgh (1829), and the three volumes of Illustrations from adjudged cases of the principles of the law of Scotland (1836). George Joseph Bell died in 1843.
From the guide to the Papers of Professor George Joseph Bell (1770-1843), 1788-1837, (Edinburgh University Library)
