§ Any agreement or other provision, however constituted, shall be void in so far as it purports to exclude or limit the operation of any enactment contained in sections 1 to 6 of this Act.—[Mr. Buchan.]
§ Brought up, and read the First time.
§ 6.37 p.m.
§ The Joint Under-Secretary of State for Scotland (Mr. Norman Buchan)I beg to move, That the Clause be read a Second time.
The purpose of this Clause is to prevent people from contracting out of the feudal reform provisions of the Bill. In other words, the Clause would render of no effect any contract in which, for example, a vassal bound himself not to apply to the Lands Tribunal for variation or for discharge of a feudal condition or, say, not to seek allocation of an unallocated feuduty.
This arises from a point made by the hon. and learned Member for Edinburgh, Pentlands (Mr. Wylie). He questioned whether it might prove possible—in the absence of provision to the contrary—for parties to contract out of the statutory code in this way.
The same point was raised by the Writers to the Signet. We had previously formed the view that the provision embodied in the Clause was not strictly necessary against the background of the existing legal position concerning the contracting out of statutes. There is much discussion and controversy about this at present. There has been an increasing 889 tendency by Parliament to block this loophole, and I have come to the conclusion that it is useful to have such a provision.
§ Mr. N. R. Wylie (Edinburgh, Pentlands)What the Under-Secretary said is right. It is safer in a situation like this to put in such a provision and I advise my hon. Friends to accept it.
§ Question put and agreed to.
§ Clause read a Second time and added to the Bill.