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There are some vestiges of "udal" land law that are still valid in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. This comes down from Norse law (the Norse controlled those i

There are some vestiges of "udal" land law that are still valid in the Shetland and Orkney Islands. This comes down from Norse law (the Norse controlled those islands for long periods of time). A major difference is that under the law in the rest of the UK a coastal landowner only owns the land down to the high tide line, while under udal law the landowner owns the land down to the low tide line. This obviously has implications for docks, pipelines, cables, etc. Also, in some of the Channel Islands, Queen Elizabeth isn't technically the Queen, but rather the Duke of Normandy (despite being female, she's called the "Duke", or "The Queen, our Duke").

Mordisquitos 5y ago
Also, while swans are the property of the Crown in most of the United Kingdom, they are the property of the people in the Orkney Islands according to Udal Law [0]: > Today, the Queen still has ownership of all swans in the UK except in one small corner of the British Isles - the Orkney Isles. > Under Udal Law, the ancient Norse system of inheritance and law, which the Viking settlers brought to Orkney, the swan is the property of the people, rather than the Crown. > The case was proven in 1910 by a Kirkwall lawyer who, accompanied by his friend, the Procurator-Fiscal, went out to Harray Loch and shot a swan. The case went to the High Court and the Crown lost. [0] https://web.archive.org/web/20160725172726/http://www.scotsman.com/news/sir-peter-s-taste-for-swan-has-him-fall-foul-of-law-1-740320 https://web.archive.org/web/20160725172726/http://www.scotsm...