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Argument is to me the air I breathe. Given any proposition, I cannot help believing the other side and defending it.

We have a new justice secretary who, at least in one respect, bears a similarity to his predecessor: he has not made any public statement about the ill-fated prosecution of Whitehouse and Clark, the Rangers’ administrators. I wrote to Keith Brown on 19 May asking about a public inquiry and rec

Lord Matthews has been appointed to the Second Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session, effective from 1 August 2021. The Lord President, Lord Carloway, and the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, recommended the appointment to allow court business to continue to be dealt with efficiently

A post-mortem examination of a baby conducted against the wishes of his parents has been ruled a breach of Articles 8 and 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Leyla Polat, an Austrian national, became pregnant with her son Y.M. in 2006 and was told by doctors that her baby was l

The number of sheriff solemn cases concluded last month exceeded pre-Covid levels, Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) figures show. There were 459 sheriff solemn cases concluded in June, which is 107 per cent of the average pre-Covid level.

Scotland's new justice secretary has said he will not shy away from reforms that would raise the conviction rate in sex cases. Keith Brown said controversial plans for specialist sex crime courts without juries and the abolition of the not proven verdict, whose existence enables more acquittals acco

Donna Brennan has joined BTO Solicitors legal director in its Raeburn Hope office in Helensburgh. In her new role, Ms Brennan will manage the firm's wills, estates and succession planning team and in conjunction with her colleagues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, she will continue the expansion of th

Burness Paull has become the first Scottish law firm to become a signatory to the Terra Carta sustainable markets initiative supported by The Prince of Wales. Launched in January 2021, the Terra Carta (rather than the well-formed 'Terrestris Carta') provides a roadmap to 2030 for businesses to move

Global legal business DWF has reported a 21 per cent rise in gross profit to £171.8 million in its full-year results for 2020/21. The group reported net revenue growth of 14 per cent (eight per cent organic) to £338.1 million at a gross margin of 50.8 per cent, while net revenue per part

Israel has threatened ice cream manufacturer Ben & Jerry's with "serious repercussions, legal and otherwise" after it said it would no longer sell its products in illegal settlements. In a statement on Monday, the ice cream company said it now believed it was "inconsistent with our values" for i

Fiona McLeod provides a brief overview of the changes introduced by the Scottish Government's revised code of conduct for property factors. On 14 July 2021, the Scottish Government published a revised Code of Conduct for Property Factors setting out the minimum standards to which factors should adhe

If a man says (for instance) that men have a conspiracy against him, you cannot dispute it except by saying that all the men deny that they are conspirators; which is exactly what conspirators would do. His explanation covers the facts as much as yours.

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the pre-trial detention of a man suspected of belonging to a terrorist organisation in Turkey was a violation of his human rights under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Tekin Akgün was suspected of b

The Northern Ireland Assembly has unanimously rejected deeply controversial UK government proposals to end all criminal prosecutions linked to the Troubles. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis last week set out the government's proposal for a "statute of limitations" which would prevent the pro

Commercial property investment in Scotland showed signs of recovery and further growth is expected as Covid-19 restrictions ease, Colliers has revealed. A new analysis showed that more than £400 million was invested during the second quarter of 2021, up from the same period of 2020 and up from