Review of Angus McAllister, 'Scottish Law of Leases'

The law of leases is not tricky to conceptualise. The relationship, where a tenant is entitled to the use of another's heritable property for a certain length of time in exchange for a periodical payment, is neatly summarised in the opening paragraphs of McAllister's updated book, but that simplicity belies the modern complexity that increasingly underpins this and other areas of Scots private law. New legislation and the continuing impact of human rights and related devolution concerns make the fourth edition of the Scottish Law of Leases a rather meaty tome, a fact quickly confirmed by the lazy reviewer's trick of checking the relative lengths of tables of statutes and cases and overall page count through the previous editions.