Developments in the Scottish Law of Land Registration

• Author: Andrew Steven
• Pages: 37-42

37

JURIDICA INTERNATIONAL 22/2014

Andrew Steven

Scottish Law Commissioner

Senior Lecturer, University of Edinburgh

Developments in the Scottish

Law of Land Registration

1. Introduction

This article considers the background to the recently enacted Land Registration etc. (Scotland) Act 2012,

which is due to come fully into force in 2014. A useful starting point may be to draw some general compari-

sons between Scotland and Estonia, with the aid of the following table.*1

Scotland Estonia

Population 5.3 million 1.3 million

Area 78,387 km245,227 km2

Commencement of

public land registration 1617 1747 (though discontinued

in the Soviet era)

Percentage of area

in Land Register

23% (almost all the rest

is in the Register of Sasines)

61% (land held by the state does

not have to be registered;

90% is in cadastre systems)

Registered title units 2.3 million (56% in the Land Register

and 44% in the Register of Sasines) 969,000

Parts of a Land Register

entry

A. Property (mapped)

B. Proprietorship

C. Securities

D. Burdens

1. Cadastral information

2. Proprietorship

3. Burdens

4. Securities

In broad terms, the table simply shows that Scotland is a larger country than Estonia: with a population

four times greater and being one and a half times larger by area. It also has more than double the number

of registered title units. With this in mind, it is perhaps diff‌i cult not to think about 18 September 2014. On

that date, there will be a referendum in Scotland on independence from the United Kingdom. Perhaps the

main argument against separation is that Scotland is in a better position as part of a larger country*2, yet

Scotland is considerably bigger than Estonia.

1 The main sources of the information here are http://eulis.eu/service/countries-prof‌i le/estonia/ and http://www.ros.gov.

uk/pdfs/landmasscoveragereport2012.pdf (most recently accessed on 29.1.2014).

2 See http://www.bettertogether.net/ (most recently accessed on 29.1.2014).

http://dx.doi.org/10.12697/JI.2014.22.04