Overcoming Barriers to Public Interest Litigation in Scotland

In Scotland, PIL remains relatively rare and it is not often a tool which non-governmental
organisations turn to to achieve their objectives. The reasons for this are manifold and an
organisation’s decision to do so depends on a variety of factors and circumstances. Nevertheless, discussions in the third sector repeatedly point to the same five factors which are hindering greater engagement in strategic legal action today.

The goal of this paper is to explore these barriers and contribute to discussion in Scotland around how we can begin to overcome them. The barriers identified in this paper are:

1. Poor access to information about court cases

2. Limitations to who can take a case to court (‘standing’ issues)

3. Short time-limits for taking cases

4. Inhibitive costs and financial risk

5. Limited culture of using PIL