News

The Scottish Law Commission’s Report on Moveable Transactions proposed reform for assignation of receivables, rents and other claims; and for a new form of fixed security interest over corporeal moveables, intellectual property, shares and other financial instruments. Since its publication in

Rebecca Ablett serves up a two-course dish of intellectual property delights from Luxembourg. The IP world has been cooking up quite a storm this summer with two particularly interesting cases featuring on last month’s menu for the Court of Justice of the European Union (the “CJEU”

Prisoners who smoke are to be offered vaping kits for free ahead of a ban on tobacco in jails this autumn. The proposal is part of a plan to help inmates give up smoking and will cost about £200,000.

A Russian national, a publisher and a religious association suffered a violation of their ECHR right to freedom of expression, the European Court of Human Rights has unanimously held. The case concerned anti-extremism legislation in Russia and a ban on publishing and distributing Islamic books.

A group of brave lawyers from Edinburgh have taken on a daring stunt, leaping from a 150ft platform to zip-line across the River Clyde in support of specialist charity Spina Bifida Hydrocephalus Scotland (SBH Scotland).

Calls have been made to refer Burmese military figures involved in human rights abuses to the International Criminal Court (ICC). Findings of the UN independent fact-finding mission into human rights abuses in Burma were welcomed by the Burma Human Rights Network, which called on the UK an

A man convicted of smuggling around £130,000 worth of gold out of the Royal Canadian Mint in his rectum has been granted a reduced fine on appeal. Leston Lawrence, 35, was fined around £147,500 last February by Justice Doody after being convicted of stealing the nugget-sized pieces of go

The Law Society of Scotland is drawing up plans to allow first-year trainee criminal lawyers to appear in court because there are too few entrants to the criminal legal aid sector, The Times reports. There are currently between 25 and 30 trainees at criminal legal aid firms, in addition to those at

Improvements to plans for an opt-out organ donation system have been suggested by the Faculty of Advocates to MSPs. The Faculty called for annual publicity campaigns so new residents in Scotland were always kept informed about the policy of deemed consent.

The number of civil cases in Scotland initiated in 2016-17 was the lowest since records began in 2008-09, with a drop of 44 per cent since that year. The latest civil justice statistics, published by Scotland’s Chief Statistician today also record a 48 per cent drop in cases at the Court of Se

Further options to deliver the devolution of railway policing to Scotland are to be explored, the Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf has said. The decision comes following recent advice from Police Scotland around the practicalities of a number of issues and timing of implementation, particularly r

Stephen Webster looks at the unintended consequences of regulation in the financial services sector.  The financial services industry is one of the most highly regulated sectors in the world. That’s a good thing because it means that professional practitioners are held accountable for the

Souter Investments has sold search company First Scottish to US firm Eli Global for an undisclosed sum, it announced yesterday. First Scottish produces searches and reports for solicitors, local authorities, financial institutions and others.

The new head of Police Scotland has acknowledged that mistakes were made in the creation of the single force five years ago. Iain Livingstone, who took up the post of Chief Constable on Monday, said the force "had not always engaged with communities sufficiently".