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March 10, 2020
Catch up on land reform
Glancing back over the brief history of the Scottish Parliament, a consistent thread running through its legislative programme has been that of land reform. The 2003 Act was widely recognised as the Parliament’s first landmark piece of legislation and subsequent to that, two further pieces of legislation have moved the debate steadily forward and probably even whetted our appetite for more. Timely then for the publication of a very readable review of where we’ve got to with land reform and some thoughts on where we might be heading next. Affordable too (paperback version).
A stimulating review of contemporary land reform in Scotland
Offers a holistic approach to land reform in Scotland
Draws on case studies of land policies in the UK, mainland Europe and the USA to allow comparison and contextualisation of Scottish land reform with other models
Examines the significance of right to property on the land reform process, and looks at how it is now being used as an impetus for economic and social rights reform
Land reform is as topical as ever in Scotland. Following the latest legislative development, the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016, there is a need for a comprehensive and comprehensible analysis of the history, developing framework and impact of Scottish land reform. Scholarly yet jargon-free, this landmark volume brings together leading researchers and commentators working in law, history and policy to analyse the past, present and future of Scottish land reform. It covers how Scotland’s land is regulated, used and managed; why and how this has come to pass; and makes some suggestions as to the future of land reform.
Introduction Malcolm M. Combe, Jayne Glass and Annie Tindley
Part I: History
Chapter 1: Land, labour and capital: external influences and internal responses in early modern Scotland. Allan Macinnes
Chapter 2: Agricultural enlightenment, landownership and Scotland’s culture of improvement, 1700-1820. Brian Bonnyman
Chapter 3: The impact of agrarian radicalism on land reform in Scotland and Ireland, 1879-1903. Brian Casey
Chapter 4: ‘The usual agencies of civilisation:’ conceptions of landownership and reform in the comparative context in the long nineteenth century. Annie Tindley
Chapter 5: Still on the agenda? The strange survival of the Scottish land question, 1880 to 1999. Ewen A. Cameron
Part II: Law
Chapter 6: History, law and land through the lens of sasine. Andrew R. C. Simpson
Chapter 7: Legislating for community land rights. Malcom M. Combe
Chapter 8: Towards sustainable community ownership: a comparative assessment of Scotland’s new compulsory community right to buy. John A. Lovett
Chapter 9: Property rights and human rights in Scottish land reform. Frankie McCarthy
Chapter 10: The evolution of sustainable development in Scotland – a case study of community right to buy regimes, 2003 to 2018. Andrea Ross
Chapter 11: Scottish residential tenancies. Douglas Bain
Chapter 12: Crofting law. Eilidh I. M. MacLellan
Chapter 13: Agricultural tenancy legislation and public policy considerations in Scotland. Hamish Lean
Part III: Policy
Chapter 14: Planning and rights: are there lessons for town planning we can borrow from land reform? Robert G. Reid
Chapter 15: Crofting policy and legislation: an undemocratic and illegitimate structure of domination? Iain MacKinnon
Chapter 16: Does size really matter? Sustainable development outcomes from different scales of land ownership. Jayne Glass, Steven Thomson and Rob Mc Morran
Chapter 17: Agricultural models in Scotland and Norway – a comparison. Annie McKee, Heidi Vinge, Hilde Bjørkhaug and Reidar Almås