Opinion

Leah Trueblood, career development fellow in public law at Worcester College, University of Oxford, carefully examines the bill on everyone's mind.  What is the purpose of the referendum proposed in the Scottish Independence Referendum Bill? Is it, as s 1 (1) of the Bill itself says &lsquo

In part one of this article yesterday, we considered the case for saying that taking timber from woodland is one of the recognised servitudes - i.e., included on the list of servitudes known to the law. On the one hand, the list of known servitudes in such standard works as the Stair Memorial Encycl

I was raised in the last house on our road to be built with a fireplace. Ever since I was a lad, seeing houses built without hearths seemed one of the various aspects of modern Scots architecture that was foolish, and sad. How shall we talk to some late hour, without the fire of turf of the ancient

On 22 September, a unique type of Sheriff Court turned seven years old. Its uniqueness among all of Scotland’s sheriff courts is that it can hear civil cases where the incident happened, or the defender lives, anywhere in Scotland rather than just a particular area within Scotland. This court

A recent ruling by the Inner House of the Court of Session has highlighted the need for parties to take care to understand their contractual obligations when seeking to exercise rights under leases, writes Eilidh Smith. The court ruled that Kuehne+Nagel Limited had been required to pay VAT on a

The UK Supreme Court will soon have the opportunity to settle the law relating to the proximity issue of plaintiffs as secondary victims in claims arising from clinical negligence, writes Belfast barrister James Stitt. On 13th January 2022 the Court of Appeal of England and Wales handed down judgeme

See how the cookie crumbles: David J Black recounts a time when politicians, given the chance to practise what they preach, decided to just preach some more.

Andrew Boccoli believes that a question mark hangs over the continuation of fixed-price arrangements. For the past 20 years, convention in the construction trade has been that contractors take on much of the financial risk when they tender successfully for projects. But, as the world attempts to man

The Westminster Health and Social Care Committee, chaired by Jeremy Hunt, published its NHS Litigation Reform report earlier this year, recommending a no-fault compensation scheme for medical negligence be introduced in England. No-fault compensation schemes are used in some countries, including New

Since 1973 and the introduction of the Prescription and Limitation (Scotland) Act, the law governing time limits for bringing claims has remained unchanged, despite many judgments which have highlighted ambiguities in the existing legislation. The Scots law of prescription, which is also referred to

Tom O’Connor travels to Poland where he finds pressure on the independent judiciary is intensifying and the country’s defiant judges in a grim mood. An EU fine of €1 million a day is, it appears, a price worth paying for Poland’s populist government which is garbing its sustai

Protection from discrimination on the grounds of religion or belief was introduced in 2003 and subsequently included as a protected characteristic in the Equality Act 2010. Belief is defined as any religious or philosophical belief (including a lack of belief) but it is specifically the area of phil

Jeremiah Igunnubole, legal counsel for ADF UK and a former senior crown prosecutor, comments on the legality of plans to limit assembly near abortion clinics in Scotland. This week, Nicola Sturgeon committed to working with the Green MSP, Gillian McKay’s attempt to impose censorship zones acro

A six-year long trademark dispute between Sky and SkyKick will finally be decided by the UK’s Supreme Court later this year – a decision which may have significant implications for brand owners. In the UK, trademark applications must designate not only the trademark itself, but also the

The work of the independent Scottish Covid-19 Inquiry, chaired by Lady Poole, is underway, write Fiona Killen and Hazel Moffat. Its key aim is to report on lessons learned from the Covid-19 pandemic, balancing the need for a rigorous inquiry with a desire to report as soon as possible on those lesso