I'm Andy Wightman, the author of Who Owns Scotland and The Poor had no Lawyers. I am an independent writer and researcher on issues of land and democracy with a particular interest in community land rights.
One of the frontiers opened up by the Scottish Parliament has been land rights - the Land Reform Act was one of the earliest and most significant pieces of legislation passed in its early years, beginning a process of restitution of control over Scottish territory that is (hopefully) exponential. Andy Wightman has become the foremost engaged intellectual on these issues (following on from James Hunter), and is actively involved in crofting and other community landclaims. His new book, The Poor Had No Lawyers, marks an exciting turn in his thinking towards the status of the commons in Scottish land law (chiming with the work of David Bollier and Nobel-prize winner Elinor Ostrom).