Applying ‘capability approach’ to the identification of losses to landowners in land acquisition cases in Scotland

This research is inspired from the existing challenges of compulsory acquisition of land by public authorities in Scotland. The exercise of the power of compulsory acquisition is a common instrument of land procurement for public projects and is often resisted, by the affected landowners, for various reasons. There is continuous effort at policy level to harmonise the procedure and derive fairer compensation mechanism for the loss of land and property rights. The first step towards achieving this bigger objective will be to understand the role of land and property in the overall well-being of an individual landowner. In this context, this research identifies and creates a list of valuable ‘functionings’ of individual landowners who have suffered losses due to compulsory acquisition, servitude and severance under various public projects in Scotland.The method of Qualitative Content Analysis is applied to analyse case reports prepared by the Lands Tribunal for Scotland. In depth analysis of nineteen relevant cases is performed with the use of NVIVO software and a list of eighteen functionings is obtained towards the end. Results state that financial functionings are most frequently discussed at the Lands Tribunals. The debate on the loss of financial benefits from expected and planned development on land, in the near future, is most debated topic by the landowners.Findings from this research can be advanced, in future research, to create a universal list of functionings offered by land and ownership rights that shall help in understanding the role of landownership in well-being of the landowners.