aut03-vikings.pdf

What did the Vikings

ever do for us?

Well they were a lot more generous in their beach

ownership laws, says Derek McGlashan.

burning, raping and pillaging,

they weren’t averse to a legal

system, and some of their laws survive

today. The Vikings used their laws to rule

many Scottish islands, dominating most

strongly in Orkney and Shetland. But

about 500 years ago, Orkney and

Shetland came under Scottish rule. This

meant that there were two different legal

systems, Viking and Scots. Viking, or

udal, laws of property and ownership still

exist in parts of Orkney and Shetland.

Udal law is very

different from the

Scots system of

property ownership,

called feudal law.

And it can get very

complicated when it comes to beaches, so

pay attention.

Viking and Scottish legal systems

both use tidal levels to define the amount

of coastal land someone can own. The

tide comes in and goes out (usually twice

a day), but each time it reaches a

different level on the beach. We can

predict this, as the tides follow a series of

cycles between spring tides (the highest

high tides and lowest low tides) and neap

tides (the lowest high tides and highest

low tides).

Under Scots law, private landowners

can generally only buy land to the

average level of the spring high tides (the

highest high tides). But, under Viking

laws, they can buy land down to the

lowest level the low tide is predicted to

reach in any year (the lowest astronomical

tide).

Under udal law, private landowners

own the whole beach. But under feudal

law, they only own the very top of the

beach. Most of the beach is legally

defined as the foreshore, under Scots law

the Crown usually owns this. Scots law

considers the lowest part of the beach to

be seabed, and the Crown owns this too.

Therefore, under udal law, the landowner

owns the entire beach, whereas under the

feudal system, the Crown owns most of

the beach.

If you were in Orkney or Shetland

and wanted to speak to the beach’s owner,

who would you contact? Well, since the

14th century, some udal land has been

sold to the

Crown, and

maybe, sold on

again. This

changes the land

from udal to

feudal, which means that even if the land

is in Orkney or Shetland, the feudal

system applies to it.

Does this matter to anyone? In short,

the answer is yes, especially in matters

environmental. Scottish Natural Heritage

(the government conservation body) can

only designate most conservation sites to

the edge of the seabed (the seaward limit

of the foreshore). Under udal law, the

private land extends to the level of lowest

astronomical tides. This is further out to

sea than the foreshore extends under the

feudal system. Therefore, under udal law,

Scottish Natural Heritage could define

their conservation sites down to the level

of lowest astronomical tide, making these

conservation sites much larger. At the

moment though, Scottish Natural

Heritage uses the feudal system of

boundaries even if the land is udal. They

could designate a lot more land as

conservation sites if they applied udal law

in the right places.

But then maybe they’re using

Ordnance Survey maps, which have to

show the position of the foreshore. In

Orkney and Shetland, these are produced

showing feudal boundaries, not udal.

This suggests that the Ordnance Survey

may not be fully meeting its map-making

obligations.

And what happens if you want to

develop the foreshore and seabed?

Generally, if you want to build a pipeline

across the seabed or foreshore, you need

permission from the Crown. In Orkney

and Shetland, you may also need

permission from individual landowners.

You can see that from an

environmental perspective, it’s all very

complicated, and we have the Vikings to

thank for that.

‘

Under Udal law, landowners own

the whole beach. Under feudal

law, they only own the very top.

’

Derek McGlashan is completing his PhD

on the interaction between dynamic

coasts and legal systems in Great Britain,

funded through the ESRC/NERC

interdisciplinary Research Studentship

Scheme.

For more information:

McGlashan, D.J. (2002) Udal Law and

Coastal land Ownership. Juridical

Review. 2002, Part 5: 251-260.

www.dundee.ac.uk/geography/s008.pdf

Derek McGlashan, Geography

Department, Dundee University, Dundee,

DD1 4HN. d.j.mcglashan@dundee.ac.uk

W hen the Vikings weren’t

Plik z chomika:

Inne pliki z tego folderu:

Inne foldery tego chomika: