Book reviews

This new edition of Angus McAllister’s book on Scottish Law of Leases is most welcome.  As the bibliography in this edition illustrates, there are few modern textbooks on leases which is a wide ranging and changing area of law.  David Cockburn’s recent book on Commercial Leases is a further welcome addition to the literature and the Agricultural Holdings (Scotland) Act 2003 will lead, hopefully, to updated editions or new works in this specialised area of leases.

The author has greatly expanded this edition, endeavouring to make a more valuable work of reference and largely succeeds in this aim.  The general law of leases is covered in some detail and there are useful chapters dealing with certain aspects of commercial leases, an outline of agricultural holdings taking account of some of the changes in the 2003 Act and two useful chapters on residential leases.  The content is clearly set out and written in a lucid, easy to read style with copious references to the case law.

In the general part there is a new chapter on succession to leases but this is disappointingly brief.  It runs to only nine pages whereas the section on a landlord’s hypothec, for instance, extends to twenty-three pages.  In the commercial law section there are chapters on rent reviews and service charges which will be a useful reference point for the non-specialist and various topical issues such as keep open clauses appear throughout the text.  In the section on residential leases there is a full chapter on Scottish secure tenancies under the Housing (Scotland) Act 2001 which will be a useful starting off point for tackling the intricacies of this Act.

The great merit of this edition is that it contains a good up to date treatment of leases generally plus a reasonable account of the commercial, agricultural and residential sectors in one volume.  

A practitioner in these three areas may need to consider a specialist textbook but this book will serve as a useful first reference point in these areas as well as being a good general text for both practitioners and students. A price of £50 is what one would expect a well-produced paperback of 552 pages on Scots Law to cost these days, however regrettable that may be.

One minor point of controversy has arisen in another review of this edition on whether the Tenancy of Shops (Scotland) Act 1949 is no longer in force.  This reviewer agrees with the author that the Act is still in force for the reasons given by the author in his letter of response to the reviewer at 2003 SLT (News) 128.

David A. Brand, Senior Lecturer, University of Dundee