Using property law to expand agroecology: Scotland’s land reforms based on human rights

Agroecological transitions in the Global North are inhibited by the cultural and legal norms of a ‘ownership model’ of property that underpins agrarian capitalism. The resulting property system limits asset transfers to agroecological regimes and co-produces technologically oriented reforms. Scotland’s land reforms are emergent legal interventions to reshape land ownership within a
Western legal context. By examining legal manoeuvres, mobilizing discourses, and governance considerations in Scotland, we sketch a roadmap for rethinking property in regions where the ownership model is entrenched. This case suggests that existing property law can be leveraged to achieve shifts in property norms towards promoting agroecology.