News

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

The Scottish Conservatives have threatened to launch court action if the Scottish government continues to ignore the Scottish Parliament and block the Salmond inquiry’s bid for key documents. Earlier this month, opposition MSPs of every party backed a Scottish Conservative motion calling on th

The UK government must respect devolution and honour its commitment to replacing EU funds in full, ministers from Wales and Scotland have "demanded" today. Speaking ahead of the government’s spending review, Jeremy Miles and Kate Forbes expressed their frustration that "no practical arran

Scotland’s sheriff civil courts are now able to conduct proofs, debates, evidential and fatal accident inquiry (FAI) hearings virtually using the WebEx video platform. The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service has been rolling out WebEx capability since April and it is widely used in the Court