Scottish Land Court

Welcome

The Scottish Land Court is a Court of law. The Court’s jurisdiction is set firmly within the context of Scottish farming. It has authority to resolve a range of disputes, including disputes between landlords and tenants, in agriculture and crofting. The Court is based in Edinburgh, but holds hearings throughout Scotland.

The Court has a Chairman, who has the same status as a Court of Session judge, a Deputy Chairman, who is an advocate, and three Members of Court, two of whom are experienced in farming and crofting matters. The current Chairman of the Court is Lord Duthie, who was appointed on 9 January 2023, following the retirement of Lord Minginish, who had been Chairman since 2014. The role of Deputy Chairman of the Court is currently vacant, but Mrs Deborah Lovell was appointed on 1 March 2024 as an additional legally qualified member of the Court. The present agricultural Members of Court are John Smith and Tom Campbell. Lord Minginish remains a member of the Court and is its Gaelic speaking member.

You will find detailed information on this web site about

• the jurisdictions and powers of the Court;
• the process by which the Court resolves disputes;
• what you need to do if you wish to use the Court to resolve a dispute;
• recent decisions made by the Court.

Whilst the name of the Court is the Scottish Land Court, the Court does not have universal jurisdiction to deal with all matters relating to land. In particular the Court does not have any jurisdiction to deal with the question of ownership and heritable title to land (which are dealt with by the ordinary courts, i.e. the Sheriff Court and the Court of Session), nor does the Court have any jurisdictions in relation to urban subjects.

There is a close relationship between the Land Court and the Lands Tribunal for Scotland: they share the same offices, and the Chairman of the Land Court is also President of the Lands Tribunal. However, the work they do is quite distinct, and they have separate administrative staff and systems.

The Scottish Land Court
Parliament House
11 Parliament Square
Edinburgh
EH1 1RQ

Tel:   0131 271 4360
Email:   SLCourtMailbox [at] scotcourtstribunals [dot] gov [dot] uk

The Land Court in pictures

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The south-west corner of Parliament Square (1); the entrance to Parliament House at No. 11 (2); Parliament Hall, looking towards the courts (3); the lobby outside the courtroom (4); the entrance to the courtroom (5):