Search: Peter Watson

A tribunal has dismissed a claim for damages following a dog bite because "every dog is entitled to one bite". The ruling from a civil tribunal in British Columbia, Canada has brought international attention to the so-called "one bite rule".

Threats against US judges have surged in 2025, with more than 370 incidents in the first five months alone.

Professor David Garland, one of the world’s most influential criminologists, was awarded an honorary doctor of laws by the University of Edinburgh on Tuesday, in recognition of his contributions to the study of punishment and social regulation. An Edinburgh Law School graduate, Professor Garla

Sheriff Ross Macfarlane QC, artistic director of the Faculty of Advocates choir, writes on the humble beginnings of its annual Christmas carol charity fundraiser. It all started so innocently… November 1996: I was a fairly new advocate and having a cup of tea in the advocates’ reading r

Law is no laughing matter. Yet when Shona White, a real estate associate with Shoosmiths leaves her Edinburgh office at night, comedy is often on her mind.

Thom Brooks, dean and professor of law and government at Durham Law School, writes on the latest development in the Brexit saga. Theresa May’s attempt to secure parliament’s approval for her Brexit deal this month has been dealt an almost certainly fatal blow.

Following on from our book recommendations last week, we have asked some of our readers to recommend their favourite law-related films.Sheekha Saha, a solicitor with Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, picked Les Misérables – "but the 1998 version, starring Liam Neeson and Geoffrey Rush".

Dr Ronan Cormacain of the Bingham Centre for the Rule of Law considers a lesser-discussed aspect of the controversial Internal Market Bill. Huge controversy has already been generated over provisions in the United Kingdom Internal Market Bill granting Ministers the power to disapply the Withdrawal A

From around 1835, Inverness Castle was the home of the city’s sheriff court until, earlier this year, all its business was permanently moved to a new “Justice Centre”, more functional but with considerably less style or grandeur. However, the future is precarious for many court bui

Daniel Wincott, Blackwell professor of law and society at the University of Cardiff, explores the impact of Brexit on devolution across the UK. Brexit has exposed the underdeveloped and fragile aspects of devolution in the UK. Devolved governments’ relationships with London are strained. The a

A terrible fate potentially awaits any Scottish folk troubadour lacking knowledge of US copyright law should he or she be tempted to record or sing in public a Scottish variant of Woody Guthrie’s great American anthem This Land is your Land, This Land is my Land, for they could find themselves

David J Black explores the dangers of orthodoxy in the first in a four-part medico-legal series. "Orthodoxy" wrote Bertrand Russell "is the death of intelligence". Before placing this in a medico-legal context with specific reference to the 2009 case Fraser and another v The National Institute of Cl

Scotland introduced a new private sector residential letting vehicle, known as the private residential tenancy (PRT), when the Private Housing (Tenancies) (Scotland) Act 2016 came into force in December 2017. As part of that regime, a legal device was made available to those who had rented a propert

On Thursday 18th November 2021 I appeared on John Beattie’s Drivetime Show on BBC Radio Scotland to discuss the circumstances surrounding the tragic death of Esther Brown – and the criminal proceedings that followed. It occurred to me that there were certain public misconceptions about t

Melanie Phillips may not be everyone’s favourite journalist or radio opinion former but who could fail to share her astonishment in The Times at the outcome of one of the greatest corporate injustices of our time? Inexplicably, no-one, it seems, was responsible for the relentless persecution a