Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991
Other legislation | |
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Amended by | Children (Scotland) Act 1995 |
Status: Current legislation | |
Text of statute as originally enacted | |
Revised text of statute as amended |
The Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991 (c. 50) is an
Background
Under the previous Scots law (derived from Roman law), a child to the age of 12 if female, or 14 if male, had legal status of "pupil" and was under legal control of an adult (usually parent or parents) deemed "tutor". From that age until the
Act
The Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991 (c. 50)
- enter into a contract of a kind commonly entered into by persons of their age group, and on terms which are not unreasonable;
- from age 12, make a Will, and are deemed to have capacity to instruct a lawyer to act on their behalf.
The right to consent to an adoption was also subsequently inserted into this section by the Children (Scotland) Act 1995.
In all other cases the legal Guardian of the under 16 has legal right to deal with all contractual and consent matters on the child's behalf.
From age 16 a person has full legal capacity to enter into any form of agreement. This subject to protection for younger persons by means of a right (under section 3) while under the age of 21, to have a contract made between the ages of 16 and 18 set aside as a "prejudicial transaction". The test is whether a reasonably prudent adult would not have entered into such a contract, and the person has been prejudiced by entering into that contract. Under section 4 a contract may be approved in advance by a court, in which case it cannot later be reduced. Contracts entered into in the course of the young person's business, or where they misrepresented their age also cannot be reduced.
There is also specific provision for persons having their birthday on 29 February; under section 6 they are treated as having their birthday on 1 March in every non-leap year for purposes of calculating their age.
See also
References
- ^ a b "Age of Legal Capacity (Scotland) Act 1991: Section 1", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1991 c. 50 (s. 1)(1)(b)