Undergraduate Legal Studies 2020-2021

The aim of this course is to ensure that participants can develop a good grounding in two important connected fields of law – leases and land law.  In particular, the course will cover the following topics:

The philosophy of the lease; the lease as a ‘real’ right; the interaction of common law and statute in the Scottish law of leases; the residential lease – public sector/private sector; recent statutory developments in respect of residential tenancies; agricultural leases; commercial leases; long leases, the registration of leases

Building upon the particular context of the commercial lease, the course then considers a selection of issues arising from contemporary property transactions. This will include investigation of the list of real and public rights available in Scots law (the numerus clausus principle) and its possible extension, the identification of how rights are created and transmitted including positive prescription and land registration, all with with particular reference to the law of real burdens and servitudes and other restrictions on the use of land.

The practical application of the law of lease and conveyancing theory, plus the intersection with planning law, will be discussed in the particular contest of a (hypothetical) retail centre development.