ABSTRACT
Abolition of feudal tenure 4 .02 Historically, Scotland had a system of feudal land ownership, whereby all land was ultimately held by the Crown. The ‘ owner ’ of land at any given time was not the ultimate owner but a ‘ vassal ’ owning the dominium utile, while the feudal superior held the dominium directum. This often enabled the feudal superior to retain control over the use of the land, impose provisions relating to maintenance, retain rights of pre-emption, reversion or redemption and, in some cases, to extract annual payments known as feuduty. In many ways the system operated like a rudimentary (private) town planning system.
