Case Reports

A Scottish man accused of committing first-degree murder in Florida has had his complaints to Strasbourg that his Convention rights would be violated if he were extradited declared inadmissible. The case Harkins v the United Kingdom concerned the extradition of a British national to the US to face t

A Syrian man who had been granted refugee status in Bulgaria but claimed that to send him back there from the UK would breach his human rights has had his legal challenged dismissed. A judge in the Court of Session upheld a decision by the Secretary of State for the Home Department to certify the cl

A sheriff has ruled that a family home that was built on a plot of land owned by one party to a marriage but which was not matrimonial property could be valued separately from the land for the purposes of calculating financial provision on divorce. The pursuer claimed that when the house was built o

Rangers has failed in its appeal to the Supreme Court against a decision of the Inner House of the Court of Session over the use of Employee Benefit Trusts (EBTs) in a case clarifying the question whether an employee’s remuneration is taxable as their emoluments or earnings when it is paid to a th

A QC who sued the Scottish Government after resigning as chair of the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry has had a £500,000 claim for damages dismissed. A judge in the Court of Session dismissed a claim by Susan O’Brien QC that a decision by the Scottish Ministers to instigate the process for terminati

A Chinese woman who claimed she would be persecuted if returned to her home country having had two children out of wedlock has successfully challenged a decision to refuse her application for asylum. The Upper Tribunal had upheld a decision of the First-tier Tribunal to dismiss the woman’s appeal,

A man who was disqualified from driving for life following the latest in a series of motoring offences has failed in an appeal against the sentence imposed. The Sheriff Appeal Court dismissed Robert Laidlaw’s claim that the ban was “excessive” after noting that the appellant had an “appallin

A paedophile convicted of two charges of rape who was given an Order for Lifelong Restriction has failed in an appeal against his sentence after appeal judges rejected his claim that the punishment imposed was “excessive and disproportionate”. The Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary ref

A man found guilty of sexually assaulting his wife “to her severe injury and to the danger of her life” has successfully appealed against his conviction based on the existence and significance of evidence which was not heard at the original proceedings. The Appeal Court of the High Court of Just

The Lord Advocate’s appeal to the Supreme Court that the Appeal Court of the High Court of Justiciary determined a devolution issue in a case involving the extradition of a man convicted of crimes in Taiwan has been unanimously allowed by justices in the Supreme Court who also found that the Appea

The Crown has successfully challenged a judge’s decision to acquit two men accused of assault and robbery charges after appeal judges held that there was sufficient proof of identification on one charge and that the evidence relating to the similarities between the separate offences would entitle

A consultant engineer who was seriously injured after he slipped and fell on a patch of black ice in a car park has had a £125,000 damages claim against a Scottish local authority dismissed. Alan Cairns suffered “life-changing” injuries as a result of the accident on Saturday 1 December 2012 in

The High Court of Justiciary Appeal Court has published a decision in which it refused an appeal by former Rangers owner Craig Whyte to have the fraud charge against him in relation to his takeover of the club dropped prior to the start of his trial. It was argued that a previous ruling which define

Rangers Football Club were not required to pay the costs of a former chief executive’s defence to criminal proceedings brought against him, appeal judges ruled. The Inner House of the Court of Session upheld a decision of the Lord Ordinary, who ruled that Rangers International Football Club plc we

Advocate General Sharpston has clarified the criteria for determining an "emanation of the state" for the purposes of establishing the bodies against which an individual may bring a claim based on rights under an EU directive which has not been transposed correctly into national law. The concept of