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Former MSP Tommy Sheridan has been declared bankrupt after failing to pay over £82,000 in legal costs arising from his failed judicial review against the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). Mr Sheridan was jailed for three years in 2011 after being found guilty of lying in evide

Paul Cackette, the former head of the Scottish government's legal directorate and chief reporter of the directorate of planning and environmental appeals, has been appointed to support an urgent review of Ireland's planning body. The Office of the Planning Regulator (OPR) this week announced the urg

Amnesty International has condemned moves by Russian-backed armed groups to try Ukrainian prisoners of war in a so-called "international tribunal" in Mariupol as illegal and abusive. Reports and pictures shared on social media appear to show cages being built inside the Mariupol Philharmonic Hall to

The Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) has announced a series of public hearings about the abuse of children in residential accommodation for young offenders and children and young persons in need of care and protection. The hearings, commencing in the second half of 2023, will focus on residential

A prison governor has apologised after allowing prisoners to take part in a go-karting contest. Inmates and guards at Fresnes Prison, the second-largest prison in France, took part in go-karting, tug-of-war and other events inspired by a TV game show, euronews reports.

The US Department of Justice has been ordered to release a redacted version of an affidavit making the case for a raid of former president Donald Trump's Florida home. Judge Bruce Reinhart, who granted the search warrant for the unprecedented raid on Mar-a-Lago earlier this month, ruled after media

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Arrest of Russian bar leader condemned | The Law Society Gazette

Construction contractors may need to deploy greater legal safeguards in order to protect their businesses from being pushed under by spiralling costs, a lawyer has warned. Andrew Boccoli, a director in the Commercial Property department at Scottish legal firm Lindsays, believes extreme market volati

English solicitors could be given more advocacy rights under UK government plans to break the barristers' strike, according to reports. The Daily Mail quotes a government source as saying ministers "are looking to give more solicitors higher rights of audience to broaden the work they can do, increa

More than two dozen people have been sanctioned by Chinese authorities over "tragically ugly" illustrations in a school textbook. An inquiry into the maths textbook, published nearly a decade ago, was launched after the illustrations were widely mocked on Chinese social media earlier this year.

Robert Pirrie, the chief executive of the WS Society, will next week deliver a free lecture on George IV's famous visit to Edinburgh in 1822. Part of a series of events marking 200 years of the Signet Library, the talk is titled Identity, Imagination and George IV in Edinburgh and will depart from t

Edinburgh should publicly acknowledge the city's role in sustaining slavery and colonialism and issue an apology to those places and people who suffered, the independent Edinburgh Slavery and Colonialism Legacy Review has recommended. The findings and recommendations of the review, commissioned in 2

Dr Anna Souhami, a senior lecturer in criminology at Edinburgh Law School, has been participating in the proceedings of a high-profile Canadian inquiry into a 2020 mass shooting in Nova Scotia. The Mass Casualty Commission is an independent, public inquiry established to examine the causes, context

Morton Fraser has reported an increase in net profit of over 40 per cent in a record-breaking year that saw the independent law firm record revenues of £23.9 million, a 16 per cent increase on the previous year. The record results allowed the firm to deliver a staff bonus pool of over £6

Edinburgh-based legal services company Vialex has announced the appointment of Steven Dunn as a legal director heading up its pensions and immigration law team. Mr Dunn has over 25 years’ experience in pensions, and was previously with Anderson Strathern where he was head of pensions and senio