Features

Graham Ogilvy looks at the life of the radical William Davidson. The release last week of Mike Leigh's new film Peterloo telling the story of the notorious 1819 massacre of supporters of parliamentary reform in Manchester brings to mind the intriguing story of William Davidson, a Jamaican-born black

Global attention has recently focused on the appointment of Brett Kavanaugh to the US Supreme Court, but Graham Ogilvy reports that the appointment of Scottish lawyer James Wilson as one of the first six SCOTUS justices was also controversial — when Wilson was twice incarcerated in a debtor&rs

It’s hard to believe only ten years have passed since touchscreen phone keyboards entered the mainstream, sweeping away the misery of millions who otherwise had to type messages with a number pad. Unfortunately for BlackBerry and its iconic QWERTY keyboard, the touchscreen revolution also her

The Secret Barrister: Stories of the Law and How It's Broken SLN assistant editor Kapil Summan reflects on the presumption of innocence in one of the best legal books of modern times.

In December 1864, Mary Pritchard became seriously ill and experienced retching and headaches. She was suffering the effects of antimony poisoning at the hands of her husband, Dr Edward Pritchard, who would become the last man to be publicly hanged in Glasgow. When her mother, Mrs Jane Taylor, moved

The venerable Society of Solicitors in the Supreme Courts of Scotland and its premises in Parliament House are among the jewels in the crown of Scotland’s legal heritage, as SSC secretary Mr Robert Shiels explains. On 1 August 1754 by Act of Sederunt of the Court of Session the

The "whipping stone", which marks the site of medieval flogging in Aberdeen, has once again been revealed. The unassuming 400-year-old relic – a square stone set flush in the ground – lies at the junction of Union Street and Broad Street and has now been restored after having been tarred

In the latest of our occasional series, Graham Ogilvy visits Inveraray Jail and Courthouse. Inveraray Jail and Courthouse occupy one of the most beautiful locations of any of Scotland’s legal establishments and is well worth a visit.

It walks like a tablet, but talks like a laptop — the super slick Surface Pro is Microsoft’s answer to the latest iPad, and probably the one after that too.

In our continuing occasional series on Scotland's legal heritage, Graham Ogilvy considers the National Gallery's portrait of Robert McQueen, who gained notoriety as Lord Braxfield, Scotland's very own hanging judge. Sir Henry Raeburn's painting of Lord Braxfield was completed in 1798

Annabel Twose of First 100 Years writes about Jessie Chrystal Macmillan, a Scottish feminist, barrister and politician. She was the first female science graduate from the University of Edinburgh; the first woman to plead a case before the House of Lords and a founder of the Women’s Intern

In 1748, James Douglas, 14th Earl of Morton, an antiquarian who had travelled in Egypt, presented a mummy to the Faculty.

In the latest of our occasional series, Graham Ogilvy discovers a curious legal relic in Dunkeld. What would the Howard League make of it? The strange door into the foundations of Telford's famous bridge across the Tay in Dunkeld is painted an innocuous blue but the heavy iron locks l

Following the conclusion earlier this week of the five-year-long National Socialist Underground (NSU) trial in Munich, In the Fade (Aus dem Nichts) from German-Turkish director Fatih Akin makes particularly timely viewing.

In the latest in our occasional legal heritage series, Graham Ogilvy reflects on the remarkable story of ‘Indian’ Peter Williamson. A document presently on display in the library of the Faculty of Advocates records one of the most shocking episodes of human trafficking in Scottish histor