Features

Barristers and advocates appeal to the cab-rank rule whenever the UK government complains that they are a left-wing nuisance. They are professionally bound to represent their clients, they say, and are agnostic as to the moral content of their cases.

I’m following with interest the current debate around a declaration of around 291 English barristers and solicitors refusing to prosecute climate change protesters and further refusing to act for clients in the fossil fuel industry on new projects. The Daily Mail made this declaration the subj

The Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission of England & Wales have published their joint report, Building families through surrogacy: a new law, together with a draft bill for the reform of the law on surrogacy. This followed a consultation process which ran from 6 June to 11 October 201

New rules which won't ap­ply north of the bor­der will mark the most sig­nif­i­cant change to pro­cure­ment law and prac­tice for a gen­er­a­tion, writes Wendy Ni­col­son. The Cabinet Office has issued its latest update on the UK government&rs

Law Society of Scotland president elect Sheila Webster reflects on a visit to Edinburgh Central Mosque. It’s always an honour to be welcomed with hospitality and generosity, and that’s even more the case when it comes to events that hold special significance for your host. So i

Jo Clancy writes about a recent case involving automatism. The concept of insurance can be traced back to the Roman Empire where, under maritime law, shippers took out insurance to protect themselves against the risk of losing their ships to stormy seas, pirates, and technical failures. Following th

I have learned from experience – that when it comes to expressing views on social media in 2023 – it is usually wise to begin by making crystal clear what I am not saying. I am not saying that the United Kingdom should withdraw from the European Convention on Human Rights. That said, vie

War and the internet … Inna Dzhurynska sits in her Dundee flat, drafting new legislation for the government of Ukraine. She’s part of a dispersed project team funded by USAID, working online to ensure that the laws and regulations governing Ukraine’s energy markets are compatible

The Hunting with Dogs (Scotland) Act 2023 received Royal Assent on 7 March 2023. Niall McLean and Tony Convery detail the changes it makes. Once the relevant sections of the Act are commenced, they will make substantial amendments to the circumstances in which dogs can be used to hunt, search f

Sue Gilchrist comments on a new bill intended to protect employees from sexual harassment. The UK government has intervened on draft legislation currently before parliament to address the risk that employers will take “unreasonable or drastic measures” to avoid being held liable for the

Recent legal news has been dominated by the coming into effect of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 in England and Wales. Previously, the law provided that individuals aged 16 and 17 in England and Wales were capable of entering a marriage, provided that they had parental con

Advocate Michael Upton looks at an early bank crash and its reverberations in Scots law.   Readers accustomed to making their way from Queen Street Station to Glasgow Sheriff Court have probably walked along Glassford Street. With bank crashes back in season, you may care next time to glan

Iain Drummond analyses Lord Sandison’s recent opinion in Atalian Servest AMK Limited v BW (Electrical Contractors) Limited, an Outer House case which outlines the difficulty of challenging adjudicator’s decisions and the importance of precise drafting when deviating from standard form co

SNP leadership election? What’s that? Oakeshott v Hancock? Forget it. Boris’s bung for his dad – a knighthood was it? Do we care? The Macron-Sunak alliance? Missed that one. Some Stirling girl’s war movie up for an Oscar? Nope. A missile attack on a nuclear power station in U

A legal job can be stressful in many ways at the best of times. Allan Ker WS, however, had a very difficult time that is unlikely to have been matched by many others in the profession although some of his contemporaries would doubtless understand the difficulties. Allan Ebenezer Ker was born in Edin