Features

Calum MacLeod, partner at Harper Macleod LLP, looks at the future of land reform in Scotland. Earlier this month, supporters of the Langholm Initiative, the south of Scotland’s largest community buyout, welcomed the news it had completed another successful fundraising campaign.

Said to be a 'living instrument', the European Convention on Human Rights was conceived in the throes of reconciliatory passion in May 1948 at the Congress of Europe in The Hague. It was brought to term by more than a hundred parliamentarians from across the region, including the Edinburgh-born Cons

New legislation around short-term lets means big changes are on the way. This could spell bad news for anyone who rents out rooms or complete flats in tenemental properties in the capital to holidaymakers, tourists or workers for a short period of time. The new legislation introduces planning contro

In 2020, the Scottish Government ran a public consultation on the further regulation of non-surgical cosmetic procedures (that pierce or penetrate the skin) and proposals to introduce a licensing scheme. On 7 July 2022, the responses to the consultation were published alongside the Scottish Governme

The Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry has now launched its application process for those who wish to be core participants in the Inquiry. Unlike the UK Inquiry which is asking for applications on a module-by-module basis, the Chair is asking for all applications at the outset of the Inquiry. Applications mu

Andrew Diamond, partner and head of residential property at Lindsays, reveals how ‘subject to purchase’ bids hold potential for unlocking opportunities to bring more homes on to market as well as greater buying power. Contract clauses which make home sales subject to the seller buying th

Retired Irish barrister Bill Shipsey, a former chair of Amnesty International Ireland, pens an open letter to former senator Lord Glennie over his controversial role on the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) courts. Dear Angus Glennie,

In Solicitors to Scotland, author Ewan McCall has succeeded in producing that rarest of publishing phenomena — a company history that is both interesting and readable. Anderson Strathern, and the dozen or so earlier incarnations that contributed to its development, is the firm in question. The

Money adviser Alan McIntosh, the managing director of Advice Talks Ltd, which operates the www.advicescotland.com website, is calling on money advisers to think differently about the energy debt crisis. As we all sit on a precipice waiting to find out how much the energy price cap will rise by in Oc

It's hardly a surprise that the article in yesterday's Times (also covered in Scottish Legal News) concerning implanting electronic chips into lawyers' brains has been met with incredulity from the readers of that venerable organ. The readers' comments are mostly along the lines of "this must be a s

On 31 July I was among the 17.4 million TV viewers who switched on to watch England beat Germany in the final of the UEFA Women’s European Championship. For England and sport fans alike it was an incredible spectacle – with a record 87,192 fans in Wembley Stadium producing an electric, a

When Russia invaded Ukraine, there was an outpouring of sympathy from many for the nation under attack. A lawyer who decided action was needed and quickly used his professional experience to provide support to Ukrainians is John Vassiliou, a senior associate at Shepherd and Wedderburn. Mr Vassiliou,

Keith Kilburn and David Arnott outline how international arbitration can be used in the construction industry. International arbitration is a well-recognised dispute resolution process for construction projects throughout the world. It offers numerous benefits to parties, including the ability

Blackstone pointed out that “it is but lost labour to say, ‘do this, or avoid that’, unless we also declare, ‘this shall be the consequence of your noncompliance.’ We must therefore observe, that the main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it

Hot on the heels of the Wagatha Christie saga which brought defamation arising from social media into the minds of many, new legislation which reforms the law of defamation in Scotland came into force on 8 August. Baktosch Gillan and Mike Kemp explain the details. Prior to the Defamation and Ma