Senators of the college use the judicial courtesy title of Lord or Lady along with a surname or a territorial name.
Senators are made privy counsellors upon promotion to the Inner House, the senior part of the Court of Session.
[1] Originally, some officers of state were included as senators, including the Lord Advocate, Lord Clerk Register, Master of Requests and the Secretary of State.
The Court of Session Act 1988, when enacted, limited the number of senators of the College of Justice (aside from the chairman of the Scottish Land Court, who ranks as a senator) to 24.
[2] This was subsequently increased to 25 in 1991,[3] 27 in 1993,[4] 32 in 1999,[5] 34 in 2004,[6] 35 in 2016,[7] and most recently 36 by The Maximum Number of Judges (Scotland) Order 2022.