Malcolm Combe pens new book on law of access to land in Scotland

Malcolm Combe

Scotland has unique and progressive rights of access to land for the public. With a landscape internationally renowned for its beauty and diversity and attracting increasing visitor numbers, an understanding of the laws of access and rights and responsibilities is important to minimise and resolve conflict.

The ScotWays Guide to the Law of Access to Land in Scotland aims to provide a user-friendly guide to the law of access to land for both the general public and the more specialist reader and it is the first to address this issue since the Land Reform (Scotland) Act of 2003 liberalised access to Scotland’s land in several significant ways.

It provides lucid explanations of how the law works to regulate access to Scotland’s outdoors, who might be entitled to access land or inland waters, who (if anyone) can set the agenda about whether or how access can be taken to any given spot, and the activities people are entitled to do there.

It considers whether, and if so where, you can park before setting off on foot, bicycle, or other means to enjoy the outdoors. It also addresses the crucial question of responsible use.

The Scottish Rights of Way and Access Society (ScotWays) is a charitable body dedicated to providing information and assistance about responsible access to land.

Mr Combe is a solicitor and senior lecturer in law at the University of Aberdeen. In June 2013, he was appointed an adviser to the Land Reform Review Group, which reported in 2014.

Since January 2017, he has been a Case and Comment editor of the legal journal the Juridical Review. He is also an external adviser to the Scottish government’s independent Deer Working Group and the General Editor of the Scottish Landlord and Tenant Legislation collection of statutory materials.