HOLYROOD'S pro-independence campers have vowed to represent themselves in a legal showdown with parliament lawyers at Scotland's top civil court.
The group of activists, who established a settlement near the legislature's main entrance in November and promised to stay put until Scotland is assured of independence, are facing legal action launched by the Scottish Parliament's corporate body which accused them of denying others use of the land and potentially calling into question the political neutrality of its estate.
The campers have insisted they have not broken any laws and have said they will fight the efforts to evict them, submitting papers to the Court of Session ahead of a deadline to respond to the parliament's action this week.
While the Scottish Parliament has hired the country's largest law firm, Brodies LLP, to fight its corner, the campers have said they are preparing go it alone against the legal giant and drafted their response themselves.
One court source said of the potential David and Goliath courtroom battle: "It's shaping up to be an unusual case".
Brodies boast of having some of Britain's leading legal experts on its staff, who have built "formidable teams" attracting "the brightest legal talent from the cream of the UK's law firms".
While academics have said the campers may have protection under a land reform law passed by MSPs 12 years ago and could augment their case by citing the European Convention on Human Rights, they have indicated that they intend to take a different approach.
A camp representative said that they instead intended to argue that they are protected under common law, while citing rights enjoyed by Scots dating back to before the Acts of Union of 1707.
The representative, who was among the group that took the documents to the court but asked not to be named, said: "Scots law goes back centuries. Corporate statute policy is enforced upon us to benefit them."
He said the campers would prefer to represent themselves at the Court of Session. Court authorities will now consider the submissions before setting a date for a hearing.
He added: "We are learning. Every day should be a school day and we should learn from each other. We'll all put our point across, we all have different reasons for being here, but we agree we need to get away from Westminster rule. We need independence. We need to take back what's ours before there's nothing else to take back."
Asked about how Scotland could achieve independence, allowing the campers to depart, he said: "The Catalans take to the streets in protest because they want independence. If we take to the streets independence becomes ours provided we can put a majority of Scotland on the street.
"They have to give us it, it tells you in the Declaration of Arbroath. But our education/indoctrination system has us believe otherwise."
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