Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Key definition

authorities definition

What does authorities mean? Authorities are the legal sources a lawyer relies on to justify a proposition of law in submissions, skeleton arguments and judgments. The term is descriptive and widely used across England & Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Ireland, rather than being defined by statute. Authorities typically include: primary legislation and subordinate legislation; binding appellate case law within the relevant jurisdiction; and, as persuasive material, decisions from other UK or foreign courts, tribunal rulings, EU and ECHR jurisprudence where applicable, and reputable academic commentary. In Scotland, the writings of the institutional writers (e.g. Stair, Erskine, Bell) may carry particular weight. Textbooks and...

Scotland: Community right to buy (LR(S)A 2003 Part 2) and asset transfer requests (CE(S)A 2015)—procedure, RCIL, late applications, valuation, appeals, case law and drafting

Published by a LexisNexis Property expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note outlines two of Scotland’s existing community rights to buy:

the community right to buy land under Part 2 of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003 (LR(S)A 2003)
asset transfer requests under the Community Empowerment (Scotland) Act 2015 (CE(S)A 2015)

The Scottish Government is conducting a comprehensive review of the various community rights to buy, aiming to propose improvements—whether legislative or procedural—to the current Community Right to Buy processes, supporting growth in community Ownership. The suggested timetable for the review is:

phase 1—initial gathering of evidence and opinions—was completed in Autumn 2024
phase 2—assessment and development of proposals—was completed in Spring 2025
phase 3—formal consultation—to be completed Autumn 2025
phase 4—development of proposals—was completed December 2025, with a view to any required legislation being ready to be introduced early in the next parliamentary session

Overview of land reform in Scotland

The Scottish Government views land as a resource that ought to benefit the many rather than the few. The community right to buy was first brought in during 2004, initially applying only to rural communities...

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Rachel Oliphant

Pinsent Masons

Rachel is a senior practice development lawyer for the Scottish property team at Pinsent Masons and is senior tutor in conveyancing on the Diploma in Legal Practice at The University of Edinburgh. After practising as a commercial property solicitor in England (at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain) and then in Scotland (at McGrigor Donald which she joined in 1995) Rachel became one of the first property professional support lawyers in Scotland in 2001. Rachel's transactional experience was in property development particularly retail development in both England and Scotland. In her current role at Pinsent Masons Rachel is responsible for keeping the property lawyers up to date on changes in property law and market practice, creating and maintaining precedents and organising and delivering training to ensure that the lawyers in the team are fully-equipped with the necessary technical excellence and skills to deliver a...

Web page updated on 22/05/2026

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