The great land debate and the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003

Abstract

This article seeks to give a flavour of the contemporary land debate in Scotland; a debate which emphatically concerns land and landscape, law and justice. It considers the historical background to that debate, including the tragedy of the Highland Clearances, and follows the progress through the recently re-established Scottish Parliament of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. This ground-breaking and controversial Act falls into three parts: the first provides for a general public right of access to land throughout Scotland; the second gives communities a right of pre-emption over land coming on the market; and the third empowers crofting communities to acquire land.

Keywords:

• access
• community rights to buy
• Highland Clearances
• land reform
• Scotland

Acknowledgments

I am most grateful to the two anonymous referees for their criticisms and comments.

Notes

1. This article draws on two talks, one titled ‘Community rights and access to land in Scotland’, given at a workshop on ‘Commons Old and New’ in Oslo in March 2003, and the other titled ‘The Highland Clearances and the Scottish Land Court’, given at a conference held by the Landscape Law & Justice Group together with the Nordic Saami Institute, in Kautokeino, Finnmark, also in March 2003. The latter talk has been published by the Nordic Saami Institute (Sellar 2004); a version of the former talk published in 2003 (Sellar 2003) is now entirely superseded. The article has been slightly updated to take account of more recent developments.

2. Sutherland, despite its name, lies at the very north of the Scottish mainland. It was originally named by Scandinavians sailing from the north, or settled in Orkney.

3. The Court of Session is the highest civil court which sits in Scotland, although there remains the possibility of further appeal to the House of Lords. Judges in the Court of Session are accorded the courtesy title of ‘Lord’.

4. It is not within the scope of this short article to discuss the place of custom and customary rights as a source of Scots law. For a recent discussion see Sellar (1987), and also Sanderson 1982, 56–63.