News

A petition demanding the repeal of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 after it came into force this week has gained more than 144,000 signatures and must be debated in the UK Parliament. Dubbed the Snooper’s Charter by its critics, the act allows the authorities to hack computers and phones and col

The three-year time limit that prevents childhood abuse survivors from seeking civil damages in court is the focus of a call for evidence issued by MSPs on the Scottish Parliament’s Justice Committee. The evidence received will inform the committee’s scrutiny of the Limitations (Childhood Abuse)

The Lord Advocate has been refused permission to appeal to the UK Supreme Court after a British businessman wanted by authorities in Taiwan to serve a prison sentence won a human rights appeal against a decision to extradite him. Zain Dean was sentenced to four years imprisonment after being convict

Stephen Gibb Shepherd and Wedderburn has today announced further expansion of its Aberdeen operations through the acquisition of The Commercial Law Practice (CLP), an independent business law firm, which has provided legal services dedicated to the business community in Aberdeen and surrounding area

Professor Hector MacQueen In the latest phase of its review of contract law in Scotland, the Scottish Law Commission has today published a Discussion Paper on the rule against penalty clauses in contracts, raising for consultation purposes the possibilities that the rule be abolished outright, or be

We are celebrating St Andrew's Day with a Scottish Legal News Quiz. Five lucky winners will each receive a £25 voucher from Marks and Spencer and a copy of Willie McIntyre’s latest book Present Tense. So, to curl up with a fine glass of Chateau M&S and follow the adventures of Robbie Munro �

David Menzies Scottish laws on insolvency have been brought together for the first time in a generation as the new Bankruptcy (Scotland) Act 2016 comes into force today.

A murderer who sought reduction of his conviction to manslaughter on the basis the statutory test for the Scots-derived defence of diminished responsibility requires that the judge defines for the jury the word “substantial” in “substantially impaired” has had his appeal unanimously dismisse

David Mundell

Two men who were involved in the unlawful removal of artefacts from sunken German warships were this week each fined £18,000 at Kirkwall Sheriff Court. Divers Robert Infante and Gordon Meek committed the offences at Scapa Flow, Orkney, where a number of German ships have lain on the seabed since th

Peter Wilding

A paedophile who was jailed for six years after being found guilty of a series of historic sexual offences has had his custodial term increased following an appeal by the Crown on the grounds of “undue leniency”. Gordon Collins, 59, who was convicted of a charge of common law rape and a further

Michael Matheson The number of recorded crimes involving firearms have fallen by a quarter in the past year.

Lord Carloway An Order made by the Lord President, Lord Carloway introducing a new framework for the training of Justices of the Peace, came into force on 28 November 2016 with practical training arrangements to be effective from 1 January 2017.

The Law Society of Scotland has welcomed the UK government’s intention to maintain links with Europol, warning that a failure to opt-in to the new European policing co-operation framework would have implications for the ability of the police to share information on cross-border criminal activity.