Features

Antoine de Vallombrosa, Marquis de Morès, was the first late modern politician in the West to emerge politically as a populist, an antisemite, and what might now be called a fascist militiaman. That unattractive curriculum vitae reflects the rise politically of Morès by incendiary rhet

Stephen McGee, the chief executive of Scottish Friendly, is steering one of the UK’s oldest mutuals into its most transformative chapter in decades. To say that recent and planned developments are seismic would be to state – or rather understate – the obvious. To say that recent an

Last March, I wrote about how AI was reshaping the legal profession and warned firms who failed to embrace it risked being left behind. Today, that warning has become a reality as a new wave of agentic AI moves beyond simple tools to systems that can think, plan and execute multi-step legal work aut

Sir Keir Starmer's warning about the lessons of Iraq reflects a central principle of the UN Charter – that the use of force must rest on clear legal grounds rather than strategic convenience, writes Andrew Stevenson. The British Prime Minister is to be commended for his reaction to the latest

The Scottish government recently confirmed that there will be a statutory public inquiry to investigate Scotland’s grooming gangs. The inquiry will be led by child sexual abuse expert, Professor Alexis Jay. But what does this mean? Christie Allan explains. Barrister Jason Beer KC, a specialist

This is a serious, well-researched consideration of how the prosecution of violent crime in Scotland has developed and of society’s changing attitudes to it. Some of the fifteen cases carefully selected by Dr Louise Heren are well-known landmark cases like those of Burke and Hare, Madeleine Sm

Sarah Stuart highlights the risks of project overrun and shares how to structure contracts in order to mitigate it. As attention turns once again to Holyrood with Scottish Parliamentary elections approaching, it's worth remembering that there was a time when the story wasn't about who would sit ther

AI’s rapid advance could transform – or even eclipse – core aspects of legal and dispute resolution work, warns John Sturrock KC. The founder of a site where AI models communicate with one another compared them to a “new species that is on planet Earth that is now smarter tha

As AI enters complaints handling, gains in speed and insight must be balanced against fairness, transparency and the human touch, writes Vicky Crichton. Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping how organisations interact with the people they serve. That’s certainly true in the world of com

When people and clients talk of the importance of lawyers who bring shop floor experience to their work, they do not come much truer than those of Qasim Ali. Growing up working in his parents’ convenience store in central Scotland means he understands the dedication that it takes to run a succ

Machiavelli wrote something to the effect that people ‘dislike enterprises where the snags are evident’. That throwaway line from the Master may be recalled when attempting to review this excellent and wide-ranging biography of Neil MacCormick personally or his intellectual achievements.

A contract law bill has reached its final parliamentary stage, bringing renewed focus to proposed reforms on contract formation and the law of retention, writes Camilla Horneman. In November of last year, we wrote about the Contract (Formation and Remedies) (Scotland) Bill, which was introduced to t

Ministers promised action on spiralling premiums. The result has been silence – and higher bills, writes Thomas Mitchell. The average cost of comprehensive car insurance in the UK is now £726 according to Confused.com, the well-known price comparison website. Post pandemic, we saw prices

Anyone who followed the 2026 Winter Olympics will probably have noted the cheating controversy in curling in the men’s game: Sweden’s Oskar Eriksson accused Canada’s Mark Kennedy of deliberately double-touching his stones, writes Benjamin Bestgen. For those unfamiliar, curling is a

Liam McArthur’s bill cannot include any effective protection for those who wish to opt out of involvement in ‘assisted dying’. Professional bodies must now formally oppose it, writes Dr Mary Neal. It was reported this week that several organisations representing the health professi