Opinion

The UK’s Serious Fraud Office (SFO) has indicated that it intends to utilise existing but less commonly used powers to grant immunity notices to offenders who assist in its cases, and support reduced sentences to defendants who provide evidence to enable other prosecutions, writes Tom Stocker.

John Sturrock looks at how legislative scrutiny at Holyrood might be improved. One of the difficulties which the Scottish Parliament has encountered is that legislation has on occasion been found, after passage through Parliament and in some cases implementation, to be in some way ineffective, inade

Stuart Munro provides an update on the Horizon scandal. Less than a week after the broadcast, on 10 January 2024, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised to introduce legislation to overturn all convictions resulting from the Horizon IT scandal – a so-called ‘mass-exoneration’ scheme.

As part of reforms to land ownership in Scotland, a new publicly accessible register with the details of anyone who controls decision-making on management, use, or development of land has been created and will come into force on 1 April 2024. Petra Grunenberg has the details. As part of the Sco

Emma Curryer (lecturer in law) and Gillian Mawdsley (associate law lecturer, Criminal Justice Clinic, and the Open University) explain the details of vicarious trauma training. For students who were undertaking our pro bono clinical legal education project, we identified a need for providing vicario

Lawyers from Shepherd and Wedderburn's Pride Network write on this year's LGBT+ History Month topic of medicine. The theme selected by Schools OUT, a UK charity that promotes LGBT equality in education, for LGBT+ History Month 2024 is ‘Medicine - #UnderTheScope’. The aim of this selectio

Andrew Foyle takes a look at litigation trends in the UK. Shoosmiths recently published its report on major trends in UK litigation. Drawing on feedback from 360 general counsel/senior-in-house lawyers working in businesses with a £100m+ turnover, I believe the report makes very significant re

Professor Kenneth Norrie responds to a piece published earlier this week in Scottish Legal News, which he characterises as "mendacious". Monday’s Scottish Legal News carried a piece with the shockingly misleading heading “Plans for new trans law…”.

One of the most jaw-dropping aspects of the Post Office Horizon scandal and the merciless persecution of its victims was the unfettered power granted to a state-owned corporation which, in England at least, had the singular privilege of investigating itself and bringing private criminal prosecutions

Proposed Holyrood legislation aims to improve outcomes for children involved in the Scottish criminal justice system. However, there are concerns about the effect of the new law on freedom of expression and open justice, writes Baktosch Gillan. Safeguards to protect children and promote rehabil

Laura Patriche and Lauren McFarlane write about the IP issues around music sampling. Music sampling is a practice which involves artists digitally incorporating segments of existing sound recordings into new compositions. Some modern examples include Drake’s Hotline Bling of 2015 which sa

The Court of Session (Outer House) recently issued an opinion on unfair prejudice, in the case of Adrian Richard Hawkins OBE and Othman Akbar Rafay, petitioners, writes Lorna MacFarlane. The petitioners sought an order under sections 994 and 996 of the Companies Act 2006 confirming that the aff

Now that the dust has not settled on the Horizon scandal in Scotland as it relates to convictions of sub-postmasters, it is useful to recall what the lord advocate said in the Scottish Parliament on 16 January, writes former sheriff Douglas J. Cusine. “In September 2020, supported by Crown Off

Former sheriff Kevin Drummond KC expands on his solution to the problem of dealing with the Horizon cases.  I am pleased that my letter in SLN has produced an informed response by Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC, by Lord Uist and by Fergus Ewing MSP amongst others. Of necessity and for economy, m

Will Cole considers some recent developments in ADR north and south of the border from a Scottish perspective, including the Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Churchill v Merthyr Tydfil, and the implications for commercial litigation in Scotland. Since the turn of the century, the courts in