Search: David J Black

A barrister has provoked a backlash after he said men should not be prosecuted for rape in situations where a woman is drunk. David Osborne said courts should throw cases out where complainants said they were unable to give consent because they had been drinking.

BDO, the liquidators of former football club Glasgow Rangers FC, have banked £24 million for the defunct club’s creditors.

A sheriff conducting a fatal accident inquiry into the deaths of a climbing instructor and two climbers in Glencoe has made no recommendations in terms of the Fatal Accidents and Sudden Deaths etc. (Scotland) Act 2016 after he found that they died after a slip or fall and there was no precaution tha

The UK Supreme Court has ruled that the practice of the Scottish courts since 2013 in relation to the admission of evidence in trials for sexual offences is liable to infringe defendants’ rights under Article 6 ECHR but dismissed two appeals on that basis presented to the court after finding t

Scotland’s most senior judge has highlighted the importance of the rule of law and judicial independence during a speech at the annual opening of the legal year ceremony. Addressing attendees at Parliament House in Edinburgh, the Lord President, Lord Pentland, stressed that the judiciary must

Scotland has never quite had an artist like John Bellany, and probably never will again. Correction: delete ‘probably’. His work has had a force and an impact which few of his generation could replicate, and he was so doggedly sui generis that we must hesitate to classify him as simply S

The history of the harms caused by asbestos is a long and painful one. Since the start of the large-scale commercial exploitation of the mineral in the 19th century, evidence of its damaging effects has been noted and well documented. In the United Kingdom diseases caused by dust exposure were among

Hostilities ended in Europe 80 years ago today on 8 May 1945. This was commemorated as Victory in Europe Day (VE). Along with everyone else, the legal profession in Scotland was impacted by the deaths of a number of its members. To remember those who died, the WS Society compiled a list of their mem

Dr Morag Kerr, secretary-depute of Justice for Megrahi, replies to Ronnie Clancy KC's recent articles on Lockerbie and argues that despite the slur of 'conspiracy theorist' used by the UK and Scottish governments, the Crown Office, the SSCRC and the Americans, Mr Megrahi still suffered a miscarriage

Applicants for rights over land under the Electronic Communications Code should investigate who occupies the land before raising proceedings, otherwise they risk causing unnecessary expense by directing the proceedings against the wrong party, the Lands Tribunal for Scotland held on 20 November in N

When he describes his arrival at the Scottish bar as being “a bit convoluted”, Ian Forrester KC really isn’t kidding. Having studied history and English and then law at the University of Glasgow, Forrester began his career with Maclay Murray & Spens in the mid-1960s with the or

Benjamin Bestgen pours forth on law and wine. It is fair to say that the British enjoy wine. Not only is the UK the fifth largest wine consumer globally. It is also the home of internationally acclaimed wine education and industry organisations like the Wine and Spirits Education Trust and the Insti

Benjamin Bestgen looks at the law and cultural perceptions surrounding suicide. The recent case of Irish citizen Tori Towey’s arrest for being drunk and having attempted suicide in the United Arab Emirates made international headlines. Media reports suggest that she was suffering domestic viol

In a landmark decision, which adds to the growing global body of climate-based jurisprudence, the Supreme Court has held by a majority that before a developer is allowed to proceed with a project that extracts fossil fuels, it must carry out an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) that assesses the