Attention has recently focused on policy and practice concerning accommodation of transgender prisoners in Scotland. However, the role of Article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) has been little discussed in this context. Accordingly, this post first addresses the general c
Search: Scottish syndicate purchased land 1901 for £5000
Nicola Edgar compares the approaches to awards for damages following wrongful death between Scotland and the rest of the UK. For a number of years in Scotland, the appropriate level of damages which should be awarded to relatives following the wrongful death of a loved one has been the subject of mu
Ever since the Court of Session was constituted as the College of Justice, the Faculty of Advocates has played a central role in promoting the rule of law and ensuring access to justice for the people of Scotland. It continues to do so today. Our commitment to excellence in advocacy underpins these
I recently caught a very spirited radio discussion on the question of whether the Welsh Rugby Union should have banned its fans from singing the Tom Jones standard Delilah at matches. Welsh Women’s Aid took some credit for the decision having argued for years that the lyrics to the song could
Death and taxes are inevitable, and following the former kindly obituaries may and often do follow but a recitation of platitudes was not always certain in earlier times, writes Robert Shiels. The death of Sir Archibald Alison in 1867 produced an obituary that must, surely, be seen as being not
Three former lawyers and two other men who masterminded a £1.48 million bank and property money-laundering operation have been jailed for a total of 30 years and four months. Solicitors Iain Robertson, Alastair Blackwood and David Lyons along with Mohammed Aziz and Robert Ferguson, were handed
The High Court of Justiciary has declined to issue a guideline judgment on the issue of sentencing in rape cases after three appeals by the Crown against what it considered to be unduly lenient sentences for three accused convicted of raping their domestic partners. It was argued by the Crown in all
Although the pandemic feels like a lifetime ago, the context of unpredictability in connection to the lockdown, unemployment, several restrictions and the changes in today’s standard of living have impacted mental health severely. In a research conducted by Mind, around one in three adults and
It’s not an insignificant mark of regard of one’s peers for an advocate to be elected Clerk of Faculty as Barney Ross was last month following a six-way contest. It’s also one about which he is typically self-effacing, and he gently points out that his observations are made in a pe
Jennifer Jack says that she was an early speaker. “My mother tells me that one of my first words was ‘organised’ – which perhaps set me on the path to becoming a lawyer,” she smiles. It’s certainly a quality that her job – as the partner leading Ha
In October 2022, the Independent Chief Inspector of Borders and Immigration (ICIBI), David Neal, published an 84-page report which looked at various aspects of indefinite leave to remain applications (ILR) which were processed between September 2021 and February 2022. Given the Home Office pledge to
There’s a chilly wind blowing around many of our farmhouse doors. With some 80 per cent of Scotland’s land under agricultural production and the agri-food sector now the largest area of manufacturing in the UK, farmers and growers are currently facing new threats to their livelihoods not
The Sheriff Appeal Court has refused an appeal against a sheriff’s interlocutor allowing the addition of a crave to prove the tenor of a letter said to alter the terms of a deceased man’s will in a dispute between his four children. Elizabeth Skelton, the first defender in an action rais
Review: Justice need not be static. In Scotland the lady, sans her blindfold, but with a vestige of the tell-tale scales in her left hand, once stood proudly over the doorway of Scotland’s 1639 Parliament with her companion Mercy until that building was ‘improved’ (i.e. largely dem
Ruth Crawford QC writes on the measures the Faculty of Advocates has taken to protect lawyers' wellbeing beyond the pandemic. The past few years have been characterised by constant, ongoing change for everyone due to the pandemic. Life at the Faculty of Advocates has been no exception. With the stri
