The aim of this international and pluri-disciplinary two-day conference is to explore the current concern for land reform in its social, cultural, legal and environmental contexts. The intention is to gather specialists from a range of disciplines including history, geography, law, literature, political science, economics, sociology, and the arts, as well as environmental and climate change specialists, to explore the interactions between land and power in Scotland.

Argument

The aim of this international and pluri-disciplinary two-day conference is to explore the current concern for land reform in its social, cultural, legal and environmental contexts. The intention is to gather specialists from a range of disciplines including history, geography, law, literature, political science, economics, sociology, and the arts, as well as environmental and climate change specialists, to explore the interactions between land and power in Scotland along three main axes:

• History: historical and symbolic roots of land and identity/power in Scotland, and their past and contemporary implications, the (mis)use of history to claim or retain rights, the history of Scottish landscapes in art and science, the history of environmentalism in Scotland, etc.
• Law: land law and policy reform in Scotland, its origins and current concerns, such as the ‘right to roam’ and the Scottish Outdoor Access Code, land reform, community ownership, transmission and inheritance, the notion of ‘environmental justice’, etc.
• The environment: eco-activism and sustainable development, for example rewilding, reforesting and repeopling, renewable energy, eco-tourism and rural development, the environment as a source of wealth and power, green nationalism, nature and Scottish identity, etc.

The conference will be held in English and French, and a selection of papers will be published in an academic publication after the conference.

Programme

Thurdsay, June 26, 2025

Morning (9am to 1pm): Land and power in Scotland, historical perspectives

9.30-10.30am

• Keynote: Annie Tindley (University of Newcastle) – "Feudal power and the politics of Clearance: the value(s) of land and the limits of landed power in Scotland, c. 1800-the present"

11am-1pm Session 1

• John YOUNG (University of Strathclyde) – "The pre-1707 Scottish Parliament and the use of forfeiture as a legal and political weapon"
• Juliette DESPORTES (University of Glasgow) – "The Language of the Land in Scottish Highland Petitions, 1745-1784"
• -Regina PÖRTNER (University of Swansea) – "'The National Debt no National Grievance'. The Scottish land question and the debate on public finance in Britain, 1762-1820"
• Thomas ARCHAMBAUD (Paris-Sorbonne University) – "Improvements strategies and reactionary politics: the Macphersons, Sir John Sinclair and land management in Scotland, 1780-1820"
• Scott MACFIE (University of Glasgow) – "‘Shameful Tyranny!’: Land and Politics on the Dumfries Estate, 1832-1841"

Afternoon (1.30 to 5.30pm): Land and power in Scotland, legal perspectives

• 2-3pm Keynote: Andrew Wightman (former MSP for Lothian and author of The Poor Had No Lawyers, Who Owns Scotland?) – "Scot Land and the Environment"

3.30-5.30pm Session 2

• Thomas SHERMAN (University of Cambridge) – "Property Rights and Historical Legitimacy in the Scottish School"
• Alexander JORDAN (Metropolitan University Prague) - "Thomas Carlyle and the Land Question"
• Edwige CAMP-PIETRAIN (UPHF Valenciennes) – "The Land Reform Act 2003, a flagship policy in the early stages of devolution"
• Calum ROSS (solicitor, Law Society of Scotland, University of Edinburgh) – "Mortensen v Peters (1906) in context: a surcease of environmental justice?"
• Carey DOYLE (SRUC, Scotland’s Rural College) – "Searching for Community Empowerment: Success and Scotland's Community Rights to Buy"

Friday, June 27, 2025

Morning (9am to 1pm): Land and power in Scotland, environmental perspectives

9.30-10.30am

• Keynote: Richard Oram (University of Stirling) – "Historicising Environment and Environmental Change in 21st-century Scotland"

11-1pm Session 3

• Emma BELL (University of Savoie Mont-Blanc, Chambéry) – "Commoning the rewilding agenda in Scotland"
• Iain ROBERTSON (University of the Highlands and Islands) – "Attitudes to land, environment and landscape in the Highlands and Islands between 1746 and 2021 as resistance and heritage"
• Hélène FOUHETY-LAFAYE (Professeur agrégée CPGE) – "Les représentations des paysages écossais comme outils de la mise en tourisme"

Where: Paris, Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, salle des Conseils

When: 26-27 June 2025

Who: Université Paris-Panthéon-Assas (Centre d’Études et de Recherches de Sciences Administratives et Politiques, CERSA, CNRS UMR 7106) and Université de Picardie Jules Verne, Amiens (équipe CORPUS)

Registration

Programme and registration : https://lp-scotland2025.sciencesconf.org

Organizing and scientific committee

• Clarisse Godard Desmarest, Professor at Picardie Jules Verne University.
• Juliette Ringeisen-Biardeaud, Associate Professor at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.
• Aurélien Wasilewski, Associate Professor at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University.