This chapter focuses on servitudes. In many civilian systems, servitudes include both praedial and personal servitudes. In Scotland the position is different. Although older authorities maintain the distinction, Bell had already stated that ‘the only servitudes in Scotland are praedial’. It admits of no doubt that this is also the modern view, and the traditional personal servitude of liferent are not considered in this chapter. The word ‘servitude’ can be traced back to the Latin term servitus. Servitus is derived from the verb servire, which means ‘to be of service’. This, very literally,...

This chapter focuses on servitudes. In many civilian systems, servitudes include both praedial and personal servitudes. In Scotland the position is different. Although older authorities maintain the distinction, Bell had already stated that ‘the only servitudes in Scotland are praedial’. It admits of no doubt that this is also the modern view, and the traditional personal servitude of liferent are not considered in this chapter. The word ‘servitude’ can be traced back to the Latin term servitus. Servitus is derived from the verb servire, which means ‘to be of service’. This, very literally, was the meaning attached to the legal concept of a servitude in the Roman law of antiquity. The lawyers of this early age did not feel the need, nor indeed did they possess the ability, to define the concept in formal jurisprudential terms.