Ewan Kennedy explores the connections between our national bard and our other national language. In Ayrshire, Gaelic had already largely died out before Burns was born in 1759. His Jacobite father had North East ancestry and didn’t have the language. While the Ayrshire Scots that Burns spoke i
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Statue of Burns in Dumfries town centre, unveiled in 1882. David J Black reminds us just how famous Burns was. See part one here.
A Scottish local authority has been granted decree of absolvitor in an action by an asylum seeker who sought to establish that he had been aged under 18 when first accommodated by the authority. Abdraman Ali Ahmat raised an action against Aberdeenshire Council seeking declarator that his date of bir
A judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has determined that an Icelandic woman who was divorced from her husband by decree in absence in Dunfermline Sheriff Court in 2021 was entitled to have that decree reduced. Linda Hafthorsdotir sought to reduce her divorce from Bjarni Eyvindsson, aft
A new book aiming to restore India's place in the ancient world is a treasure trove of insight and anecdote, writes Kapil Summan. On 1 September 1783, the 24-gun man o' war HMS Crocodile arrived in Madras. A Porcupine-class warship late of the British defeat in America, its most precious asset was t
A sheriff has concluded that the death of a soldier who died after his sniper rifle discharged at his head while he was holding it could have been avoided if normal procedures for the unloading of rifles had been carried out following a shooting drill earlier that day, however no defects in any syst
A former local authority employee who was dismissed after taking a long period of absence following complaints he made about health and safety practices at his workplace has lost an Employment Appeal Tribunal challenge to the dismissal of his application due to time bar. Paul Douglas was employed as
David J Black tackles the issue of the day. One of the more annoying things about the British media in general, and the navel-gazing BBC in particular, is the irritating habit they all have of prioritising so-called news stories which are so trivial and ephemeral they barely deserve to make the insi
A judge in the High Court of Justiciary has concluded after an examination of the facts that a man with significant learning difficulties had murdered a woman in West Calder and attempted to conceal the crime by disposing of incriminating effects. The accused, Michael Porchetta, was deemed unfit for
Tributes were paid to the "impossible but fabulous" Ethel Houston to celebrate the 75th anniversary of her becoming the first female partner in a Scottish law firm. Ethel, who would have been 100 this year, became a partner at Balfour and Manson in 1949 – and her life and achievements were cel
When we think of prisoner of wars (POWs), we probably think of British prisoners with the images that recall the impenetrable fortress of Colditz and statements that “for you the war is over” in the Great Escape. Both dramatise events with their focus on British escape stories where the
Lindsays chief operating officer Ian Beattie pays tribute to the firm's lawyers playing a role in charities across Scotland. It’s been Trustees Week from 4-8 November, and across Scotland and the rest of the UK, the spotlight is shining on the priceless contribution made by charity trustees to
A commercial judge in the Outer House of the Court of Session has recalled the appointment of an interim judicial factor on the estates of an Aberdeen-based partnership dealing in scrap metal after finding that the full circumstances did not merit such an appointment. Petitioner Rodney McAllister so
Great changes are being wrought in Scotland's law of evidence. Dr Grant Barclay, early career fellow in evidence and criminal law at Edinburgh Law School, looks at the full bench decision in HMA v PG and JM. “Having to apply rules, which prohibit a judge or jury from reaching a just conclusion
The de recenti disclosure of an undistressed complainer to a third party that they have been the victim of a sexual offence is corroborative, a full bench of the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary has ruled – though one judge gave a minority view warning against the effective removal
