News

Three men who were convicted of committing a breach of the peace after attending a Celtic FC game wearing T-shirts with IRA imagery have had their convictions quashed by the Sheriff Appeal Court (Criminal Division). Daniel Ward, Martin Macaulay and Ryan Walker argued that the she

The Scottish government has declined to increase legal aid fees or provide financial assistance to law firms that are currently struggling. Ministers rejected the Law Society of Scotland's suggested 50 per cent increase in legal aid fees but has agreed to increase fees for solicitors handling early

Conservative MSP and former solicitor Murdo Fraser says his party will press the Lord Advocate on the unanswered questions and strange circumstances surrounding the malicious prosecution of people involved with Rangers. The latest twist in the ongoing scandal in connection with the prosecution

Baroness Helena Kennedy QC is to lead a working group on the possibility of creating a new offence of misogynistic harassment in Scots law. The working group was requested by women's organisations include Engender and Scottish Women’s Aid.

The Law Society of Scotland has welcomed Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf's amendments to the Hate Crime Bill. Amanda Millar, president of the Law Society of Scotland, said the criminal liability in respect of directors and presenters of plays had "presented a significant threat to freedom of exp

The Home Office's widely-condemned "hostile environment" measures breached equality law with particular impact on black members of the Windrush generation, the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said. The equality watchdog's new assessment highlights that that the negative consequences

Further plans to recommence Sheriff Court jury trials across Scotland have been announced with arrangements for remote jury centres to be created in ODEON cinema complexes in Ayr, East Kilbride, Dundee and Dunfermline. Contractual arrangements for jury venues in Aberdeen and Inverness are currently

The Scottish Law Agents’ Society sounded a note of caution over the use of telephone hearings to deal with debates and contentious motions in the civil courts. Andrew Stevenson, secretary of the Society, said: "We understand that there are pressures to get business processed though the courts

Judicial reviews sought by the Good Law Project have proceeded to the next stage. The High Court allowed two separate claims to proceed. One concerns the UK government's transparency obligations and the other a challenge, made with EveryDoctor, against the government's decision to award contracts to

Law graduate Nicola Hadden will take up a child law traineeship with Thorley Stephenson in January next year. Ms Hadden graduated from Edinburgh University with the LLB last year and the diploma this year.

The popular fictional advocate, Edward Kane, faces some novel difficulties as he takes on his first murder case in a new book. For one thing, the 19th-century counsel has never even seen a murder trial, and although at risk of the hangman’s noose, his client refuses to speak to him.

"Usura rusteth the chisel/It rusteth the craft and the craftsman", wrote Ezra Pound. Benjamin Bestgen this week explains the practice of usury. See last week's primer here. In Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice we encounter two people lending money: the Christian merchant Antonio and the Jew

A former gymnast has reportedly defected from North Korea to the south by vaulting a three-metre high border fence. South Korean media said officials who found and detained the man were so astonished they asked him twice to show his jumping skills.

Two companies which were at odds over whether a dispute over a contract between them for the sale of metal products had been resolved have had the issue resolved in favour of the original seller. The pursuer, Donald McCarthy Trading Pte Ltd, contracted with Ireland Alloys Ltd for the

‘Old Corruption’ was the term given in Georgian times to the system of patronage and preference which saw government sinecures, pensions and contracts handed out to cronies and relations. Thank goodness it could not happen today. As we show below, Henry Dundas, who looks down upon Edinbu