The Poor had no Lawyers II

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Signed hardback copies dispatched post free to the UK together with a free one-month subscription to www.whoownsscotland.org.uk for all orders placed by 17 September 2010.

The Poor Had No Lawyers provides a fascinating and in depth account of how Scotland’s vast commons were converted into private ownership through a variety of legal devices. It examines the legacy of Robert the Bruce, the Reformation and municipal corruption. It exposes the motives behind the laws of land registration and prescription. Over 32 chapters, it explores everything from the story behind the Cuillin sale, the scandal of agricultural subsidies and the use of a non domino titles to legal reforms of succession law, the ongoing struggle to protect remnants of Scotland’s commons, the muddle that is the community right to buy and why the current SNP government has done so little on land reform. Along the way it provides authoritative statistics on who owns Scotland today and reveals the remarkable story of how the ownership of every corner of Scotland was mapped and documented in 1910.

A critical, detailed, engaging and shocking account of how Scotland came to be so ill-divided.