Kapil Summan

The actions of the UK government during the coronavirus emergency this year bear the hallmarks of authoritarianism, Lord Sumption has warned. The former Supreme Court justice noted that authoritarian government promotes "loyalty at the expense of wisdom and flattery at the expense of objective advic

Lord Hope of Craighead has warned that the UK government "will bring our precious union to an end" if it is not "very careful". The former Deputy President of the Supreme Court and Lord President of the Court of Session was speaking in the House of Lords on the devolution aspects of the Internal Mar

The UK government's Internal Market Bill is "contrary to the rule of law" and risks destabilising the UK's constitutional settlement, a Lords committee has said. In its report on the bill, which it said is "without precedent", the Constitution Committee added that the government has given no "satisf

Lawyers have voiced their opposition to any entrenchment of remote justice following comments from the Lord President that Scotland's legal system will not return to the status quo. Since the lockdown in March, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has developed new digital court inf

A former Supreme Court president has warned that when a society deprives people of the right to challenge the government in court "you are in a dictatorship; you are in a tyranny". In a discussion on the Internal Market Bill, Lord Neuberger, David Neuberger, a former president of the Supreme Co

Lord Keen of Elie QC has been praised for his honourable resignation this week by senior legal figures who have predicted that the UK government will have "difficulty" in replacing him. Lord Keen left his post after a debacle that arose over a government bill. His erstwhile colleagues now

The Advocate General for Scotland, Lord Keen of Elie QC, has offered his resignation to Prime Minister Boris Johnson following a debacle arising over a government bill. The UK Internal Market Bill allows ministers to “disapply” rules agreed over the goods that cross between Britain and N

A new project will fill an access-to-justice gap and educate the public on the law while giving students hands-on legal experience in order to help boost their employability prospects. The Tayside and Perthshire Law Project (Tayper) is a pro bono organisation due to launch later this year that will

It is "very hard to understand how Lord Keen can stay in place as Advocate General" following the UK government's admission it intends to break international law, a senior advocate has said. A law proposed by the government would fall foul of the Brexit deal it signed with the EU last year. The bill

Criminal defence solicitors have ridiculed a suggestion that summary trials be held at the weekend as a measure to cope with the mounting backlog of cases.

Rape Crisis Scotland’s proposed legal action against the Scottish government over its failure to consider non-jury trials – which the charity complains has caused unacceptable delays for rape complainers – is “paradoxical", given that Rape Crisis itself had a hand in extendin

The Faculty of Advocates has established an emergency fund to assist members who have been tipped into financial distress by the COVID-19 pandemic. Members of the hard-pressed criminal bar have been especially affected by the suspension of criminal trials in Scotland. These were brought to a halt in

Lord Sumption has admitted that he stopped obeying the coronavirus regulations when they began "reaching levels of absurdity". Speaking to legal journalist Joshua Rozenberg QC (hon.), the former Supreme Court justice said he did not accept that there was a "moral obligation to comply with the law".

Lawyers have said there is a case for complainers in sexual offences cases to be given their own legal representation when applications are made to lead evidence of bad character or sexual history so they can make submissions on whether such an application should be granted in order to prevent "re-v

The results of our working from home (WFH) survey are in and they present a largely favourable but mixed picture of WFH that will likely see a mixed response from law firms.