Purpose and Effect
Section 99 provides for legal relations to arise between the Crown in right of Her Majesty’s Government in the UK and the Crown in right of the Scottish Administration. It provides that rights and liabilities may arise between the Crown in such different capacities by virtue of a contract, by operation of law or by virtue of an enactment and that property and liabilities can be transferred between them as if they were subjects. It also provides that the Crown can sue each other in such different capacities in respect of such property and liabilities or in respect of the exercise of, or failure to exercise, any function exercisable by an office holder of the Crown in one of those capacities. This will enable the Scottish Ministers, in appropriate cases, to sue a Minister in the UK Government (or vice versa) in contract or in delict or to seek judicial review of the exercise, or failure to exercise, of some function by that Minister.
