The ownership of inshore fisheries in Scotland:An opportunity for community ownership?

The Scottish Government has pledged to reform inshore fisheries by 2020, while the UK Government is in the process of reforming fisheries legislation with the Fisheries Bill, brought forward in anticipation of the departure of the UK from the EU. . As the necessary starting point for any regulatory reform is an understanding of the existing rights subject to regulation, this article investigates the nature of the existing rights to fish in inshore Scottish waters and assesses whether reform of the ownership of Scotland’s fishery needs to be assessed at the same time as its regulation. The article considers the theory behind Scotland’s fishing rights, the extent of the right to fish, the Crown’s right to alienation and the statutory impacts on the right to fish, before finally placing these findings in the context of contemporary developments of Scottish property and land reform law