Features

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War. Ronnie Clancy KC takes a look at a legal case that was central to its outcome. For those of us old enough to remember the Vietnam War, Ho Chi Minh (born Nguyễn Sinh Cung) is a very familiar figure. He was the face of opposition to

After more than four decades of prohibition, Scottish football may be on the cusp of a significant cultural shift, writes Madeleine Thomas. This month, for the first time since 1980, supporters at a top-flight match were able to purchase alcoholic drinks inside a stadium. Aberdeen FC’s success

As Scotland’s housing sector emerges from one of its most turbulent decades, Marcus Di Rollo says 2026 is shaping up to be a pivotal year of recalibration rather than volatility. The 2020s have been a turbulent time for Scotland’s housing market. Rents and prices surged during the pandem

This article looks at the main changes brought in by the Bankruptcy and Diligence (Scotland) Act 2024 began, six months on. These reforms are expressed through amendments to the Bankruptcy (Applications and Decisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2016 and related instruments. The most recent commencement

Next year will see the first wave of changes under the Employment Rights Act come into force, writes Laura Morrison. Key developments include the introduction in April 2026 of day-one entitlements to statutory paternity and parental leave, alongside a doubling of the cap on protective awards for fai

A check on the pages in Wikipedia for Diana, Princess of Wales suggests that there are at least 30 books about the lady, and the long article there has about 500 footnotes. That alleged number of books may be a low number of the actual publications, given foreign interest. These bare statistics do n

Benjamin Bestgen has penned a guide to wine labels for SLN readers this festive season. Last year I wrote about wine and the law for SLN. With the festive season in full swing, many of you will be going wine shopping. However, the sheer amount of options can overwhelm consumers. Therefore, shop

Maureen Matheson may not pour a great pint, but the skills she learned while working behind the bar in Glasgow’s Bon Accord have stood her in good stead for her life as a lawyer. “You learn so much about customer service,” she says of the bar work she did to fund her way through he

Applications for permission to appeal (PTA) to the Upper Tribunal for Scotland (UTS) frequently raise questions about the boundary between fact and law and the scope of the arguability test. These issues appear across Scotland’s tribunal system where appeals proceed only on points of law. Ahsa

The Great War had an unprecedented and long-lasting impact on crime in Scotland. From the first year of the war prison committals were at their lowest levels since the 1870s, and remained there until after armistice in 1918. Even amongst those citizens not in the armed forces imprisonment also fell

The Scottish Law Agents’ Society has reacted with dismay to the decision by the Scottish Solicitors’ Discipline Tribunal to reduce the standard of proof it applies from beyond reasonable doubt to a balance of probabilities. Andrew Stevenson, its secretary, explains why. This decision amo

David Dewar was born in 1836 in Perthshire, the son of a farmer. At the age of fourteen years he entered the office of Mr Barty, the procurator-fiscal at Dunblane. After a legal apprenticeship he was engaged as a clerk in the office of the procurator-fiscal at Airdrie and at Fort William. It is not

The die was cast for Mary Queen of Scots on May 16th 1568 when she crossed the Solway into England a few days after the Battle of Langside. Some sought to dissuade her. Archbishop Hamilton even seized the reins of her horse and begged her not to trust herself to England. Mary would have none of it,

The last revolution in legal education was not digital but electrical. For a time, the lecture halls of Edinburgh and Glasgow stood half-in, half-out of the new century: stone stairwells lit by bare bulbs, while seminar rooms still relied on the yellow comfort of gaslight. No one doubted that electr

Irrespective of one’s politics, it is irrefutable that John Maclean was one of the great men of politics making history in early twentieth-century Red Clydeside. So why is he so sparingly discussed in this book whose title purports to be a new biography? The early chapters rattle along recount