Crown Estate devolution: assessing the process, substance and rationale

Church, Oliver (2025) Crown Estate devolution: assessing the process, substance and rationale. LL.M(R) thesis, University of Glasgow.

Abstract

This main goal of this thesis is to set out and analyse the process that led to the devolution of responsibility for the management of the Crown Estate to the Scottish Ministers, evaluating the strengths of that process with a view to determining whether it proceeded in a cohesive and logically consistent manner. This consideration of the process is accompanied by detailed scrutiny of aspects of the legislation that resulted out of that reform, arriving at a determination of whether the legislation is conducive to the resolution of the various issues that led to the consistent calls for reform.

The thesis begins with a literature review that sets out the relevant academic writing and official publications concerning the Crown Estate in Scotland. This offers a foundation on which to proceed with analysing the strengths of the devolution of the Crown Estate. Also detailed is an example of dissatisfaction with the manner in which the Crown Estate Commissioners carried out their functions, focussing on their statutory duty to maximise revenues.

The second chapter focusses on the political backdrop against which the reform of the Scottish elements of the Crown Estate took place, also providing insight into the politically divisive debates that were taking place in the Scottish Parliament and elsewhere, and whether the extent of this divisiveness hampered reform. The view can be taken that the Crown Estate is a particularly useful issue through which to analyse the transfer of power between legal and political institutions in the United Kingdom. The reasons for this are numerous: for example, the way in which management of the Crown Estate is governed and carried out has profound implications for the achievement of public policy goals in Scotland.

Chapter three deals with the legislation that resulted out of this process, the Scottish Crown Estate Act 2019. The process that was engaged in during that Bill’s passage through the Scottish Parliament is found to be encouraging in terms of its rigorous Committee stages, under which a very wide variety of relevant stakeholders were consulted on how they believed long-term management of the assets should be guided. The chapter then analyses in detail the Bill at various stages, taking a specific interest in the economic and social duties placed on Crown Estate managers, as well as the provisions concerning further devolution to local authorities and community bodies.

The thesis then adopts a theoretical perspective in Chapter 4 by seeking to ascertain whether a certain conception of property theory can be identified at each stage of reform. By this, it is possible to demonstrate the extent to which the Crown Estate in Scotland exemplifies an expansion in the obligations owed by property owners towards society, particularly by reference to the manner in which the new legislation broadened the duties of Crown Estate managers.

The thesis concludes by taking the view that the initial reservation of management functions relating to the Crown Estate along with the continued reservation during the first decade of the Scottish Parliament were borne out of a desire to preserve the integrity of the United Kingdom. The Crown Estate, due to its proximity to the monarchy, is embedded with both emotional and practical relationships with the Union, and as such the Crown Estate is an understated focal point of any such devolution. The view is then taken that the Crown Estate demonstrates a divergence in policy between Scotland and the UK, with the former placing a greater emphasis on the extent of the obligations owed by property owners to wider society.

• Item Type: Thesis (LL.M(R))
• Qualification Level: Masters
• Subjects: K Law > KD England and Wales > KDC Scotland
• Colleges/Schools: College of Social Sciences > School of Law
• Supervisor's Name: Reid, Professor Dot
• Date of Award: 2025
• Depositing User: Theses Team
• Unique ID: glathesis:2025-85440
• Copyright: Copyright of this thesis is held by the author.
• Date Deposited: 10 Sep 2025 08:32
• Last Modified: 10 Sep 2025 08:35
• Thesis DOI: 10.5525/gla.thesis.85440
• URI: https://theses.gla.ac.uk/id/eprint/85440