Features

The understandable furore over the wrongful conviction of Andrew Malkinson on a charge of rape in the English High Court has led to calls from many eminent lawyers for a public inquiry. The failures of the police, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Criminal Cases Review Commission add up to a dis

A recent decision provides much welcome clarity on the application of Qualified One-way Costs Shifting (QOCS), writes Kelly Brotherhood. Some may feel that, like buses, we can wait a long time for an established qualification to the Scottish costs shift in personal injury litigation to turn up. Well

The Faculty of Advocates has in general welcomed the introduction of the Regulation of Legal Services (Scotland) Bill, much of which recognises and preserves the independence of the legal profession, writes Dean of Faculty, Roddy Dunlop KC. However, as the Scottish Parliament reconvenes this we

The Company of Scotland and its attempts to establish the colony of Caledonia on the inhospitable Isthmus of Panama, in South America, in the late seventeenth century is remembered even now as a human and financial disaster in Scottish history. The grand plan of William Paterson, whose earlier plan

Registers of Scotland should devote its resources to addressing the backlog of applications instead of 'Unlocking the Sasine', writes the Scottish Law Agents Society. Amanda Cameron of D M Hall provided a timely reminder of the Scottish government target of having all property on the Land Register b

Douglas Strang looks at a recent Employment Appeal Tribunal (EAT) decision in relation to unlawful discrimination. Higgs v Farmor’s School and others relates to an incident which happened as long ago as October 2018 and it is a separate matter of concern that it has taken the best part of five

As the General Register of Sasines approaches the end of its 400-year reign, big decisions lie ahead for property and land owners, writes Amanda Cameron. Scotland’s General Register of Sasines is the oldest national land register of property interests in the world, having been established

The government has granted a general licence to enable UK lawyers to provide legal advice to non-UK individuals and businesses in relation to their compliance with international sanctions on Russia, without breaching UK sanctions regulations themselves, writes Stacy Keen. UK Russian sanctions r

The concept of command, as a way to decide on strategies to achieve objectives, or as an assertion of authority, has been essential to military action and leadership. Sir Lawrence Freedman pursues that proposition and shows how it is also deeply political.

The final report of the Hearings System Working Group (HSWG) was published on 25th May. The report proposes a significant redesign of the existing children’s hearings system in Scotland. Dr Alyson Evans of the University of Strathclyde, an academic specialist in the children’s hearings s

In the recent case of Tilbury Douglas Construction Limited v Ove Arup & Partners Scotland Limited CA117/21 [2023] CSOH 53 the issue of prescription was revisited by Lord Harrower at a preliminary proof, writes Karen Cornwell. By way of background, the ongoing case involves the development of a f

The Scottish government is careful to limit the public's participation in the legal system so as not to frustrate its own ends, suggests Andrew Stevenson. In the preface to his 1906 satire The Doctor’s Dilemma, George Bernard Shaw launched a coruscating attack on the medical profession as it t

David J Black reads the fine print of the Book Festival furore. Many of us may share the underlying views of those who believe we should be cutting back on the use of fossil fuels to save the planet, but scratch beneath the indignant morality of the latest attack by a number of Greta Thunberg inspir

Slovakia might be a distant land, and Covid a distant memory. But a significant case brought to the European Court of Human Rights could bring closure to some of the legal questions posed during the pandemic – much-needed closure that many European nations have not yet received, writes Lo

In 2013, I was an in-house lawyer with Standard Life, on the Law Society’s In-House Lawyers Committee, and heard about an inaugural Scottish Legal Walk in Edinburgh. This Access to Justice Foundation event, in aid of local legal advice charities, was on the first of October that year. I went a