Community Rights and Access to Land in Scotland - Caledonia.docVIP

Community Rights and Access to Land in Scotland David Sellar, School of Law, Edinburgh University Proceedings from a workshop on Old and New Commons, Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo, Norway, 11th to 13th March 2003 This paper gives a flavour of the great land debate which has been raging in Scotland for some years, and of which the most tangible outcome so far has been the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003. This Act, passed by the Scottish Parliament in January 2003, contains provisions permitting general public access to land, and allowing for the community purchase of land. Before moving on to the land debate, the paper considered a number of preliminary points: the history of commons or “commonties” in Scotland; whether anything approximating to an allemansrett might be said to exist in Scotland; the Trust concept; and two myths regarding ownership and access. Community Rights and Access to Land in Scotland David Sellar, School of Law, Edinburgh University Proceedings from a workshop on Old and New Commons, Centre for Advanced Study, Oslo, Norway, 11th to 13th March 2003 Contents: Commons or commonties Does anything approximating to an “allemansrett” exist in Scotland? The Trust concept in Scotland Two myths The Land Debate and the Land Reform Act Community buyouts The Land Reform Bill/Act Further Information Commons or commonties The history of commons in Scotland, or “commonties”, as they are often referred to, is very different from the better known history of the commons in England. In Scotland division and enclosure of common land came rather later than in England, and does not appear to have been, at least at first, so socially disruptive. The last purely Scottish Parliament before the Union with England in 1707 passed some significant agricultural legislation, including the Winter Herding Act of 1686, the Runrig Lands Act of 1695 and the Division of Commonities Act, also in 1695. The last provided for the division of commonties among the various interested