Features

As a court practitioner, you sometimes get the impression that the manner in which you express your client's case in writing doesn't matter as much as it used to, writes Ling Deng. The court can be very accommodating to a party whose case is expressed in slightly opaque terms. The recent judgment of

The Court of Session has confirmed that courts will enforce any alternative dispute resolution (ADR) provisions which are written into contracts and will uphold the power and discretion of the decision makers in those processes, writes Steven Blane. Lord Lake’s opinion demonstrates that t

Imagine if you couldn’t make decisions yourself. Who would act on your behalf? Who’d pay bills, manage your welfare, and make key decisions? That’s the role of your attorney. The breadth of the control an attorney can have over your affairs couldn’t have been starker in a cas

Lynsey Brown discusses surrogacy regimes and the confusion they often cause. Surrogacy is still relatively rare in Scotland and the UK, but lawyers who specialise in this area are seeing a steady increase in enquiries from prospective surrogates and intended parents.

Ann Logan details calls for an inquiry into the use of sodium valproate (SV), used to treat epilepsy and bipolar disorder, on pregnant women and the suggested avenues of redress. SV, known by Epilim and other brand names, has been prescribed in the UK since 1972. It was known from the outset to be h

The right to education is protected by Article 2, Protocol 1 European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Article 14 ECHR prevents the government discriminating against people exercising this right. However, the Scottish government’s Students' Allowances (Scotland) Regulations 2007 have been fo

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

Last week, news of an accident involving Scottish record-breaking cyclist, Christina MacKenzie, spread through the cycling community and beyond. Christina holds the women’s record for cycling from Land’s End to John o’Groats in 51 hours and 5 minutes and the NC500 Women’s rec

There’s a chilly wind blowing around many of our farmhouse doors. With some 80 per cent of Scotland’s land under agricultural production and the agri-food sector now the largest area of manufacturing in the UK, farmers and growers are currently facing new threats to their livelihoods not

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.