Robert Shiels

Recently caught up in the Iberian power failure, Robert Shiels, ponders on the lessons of Oliver Letwin’s prophetic book on the subject. This small book bobbed along for four years after publication, perhaps un-noticed, or ignored in part due to the argument around potential disasters, and pos

Death scholarship is well-established. Dr Molly Conisbee, a visiting fellow at the Centre for Death and Society at the University of Bath, has studied many aspects of death and mourning. As this is a ‘people’s history’, the study has excluded intentionally the monumental death cere

Lewis and Harris, or Lewis with Harris, are one – a Scottish island in the Outer Hebrides, around 24 miles from the Scottish mainland. With an area of 841 square miles it is the largest island in Scotland and the third largest in the British Isles, after Great Britain and Ireland.

With this book Dr Kennedy, a lecturer in Scottish history at the University of Dundee, provides a substantial analysis of crime in late seventeenth-century Scotland. The limitation is ‘serious’ crime, which is to say that prosecuted in the Justiciary Court, the central court with crimina

The bland generalities, often of pure hatred, in a war of ‘us’ versus ‘them’ take on a different perspective when faced directly with one of the enemy. A live prisoner of war may attract sheer animosity, or worse, but the remains of a dead combatant, by definition not exuding

Professor Richard Susskind, as is probably well-known, graduated in law from the University of Glasgow, and then obtained a doctorate on computers and law at the University of Oxford, where he is a visiting professor. His publication list is now commendable. This new book, How to Think about AI: A G

The slightly weary thought on seeing another new book on Mary Queen of Scots has already been suggested in Scottish Legal News. Deciding whether there are too many books on this particular Queen must depend of course on what the latest author has to say, given the very many others in or out of print

Society’s problems arising from the growing number of those who live with Alzheimer's disease are projected to develop into an even greater crisis within a few decades.

George Craig (1783-1843) made his living as a lawyer, banker and land agent, through judging the character and credit of others, and he was immersed in the local community. He had a social conscience through his dealings with the parish poor, and he was also the treasurer of the Galashiels Savings B

Brian Jenkins is the latest writer to consider Madeleine Smith, who, he opines, was in many respects a less than appealing figure, although she has never wanted for biographers. A brief glance at a few bibliographies suggests that this is the 23rd book on the case, as well as many dedicated chapters

From the Second World War the dynamics of the vast overseas empire of the United Kingdom began to change, although certain former colonies had gained significant powers before then. The end of the empire, in the sense of complete political and legal independence, came about very quickly in the late

The idea of the public interest and the desirability of a fatal accident inquiry developed and appeared in new law at the end of the 19th century. Heavy industrial occupations, and other sorts of similar manual work with inherent dangers might have been thought to be the basis of attention for the l

Autocracy, Inc is a small book, with a dark paper cover, that sets out in disturbing detail the attacks, overt and covert, by autocrats everywhere on liberal democracies and open societies. The concept of autocracy is where one person governs with all the power, and that is defined by the author as

Many of the earlier books on famous crimes may require to be revisited, and this comprehensive new book by Halle Rubenhold demonstrates why. A standard description of the events of and around Dr Crippen’s activities constituted "one of the most infamous murders of the twentieth century".

‘County lines’ is a sub-genre, but not a lesser one, of the lucrative business involving controlled drugs. It is constituted by goods being moved from across police and other domestic boundaries. The transportation is sometimes (although not always) by children, vulnerable people or othe