Opinion

The Scottish government's recent changes to the emergency rent freeze legislation have improved the position of private landlords but have also caused an imbalance in the rental market and raised questions about the government's long-term vision for the sector, writes Marcus Di Rollo. Private landlo

Richard McMeeken considers the scope of director's discretion and how this has been dealt with by the courts. The duties incumbent on company directors are much talked about at the moment following the Supreme Court's judgment in BTI 2014 LLC v Sequana SA and others [2022] UKSC 25 clarifying the exi

The UK government has launched a consultation on proposed changes to the way holiday entitlements are calculated for part-year workers, addressing employers’ concerns following a recent landmark ruling on the issue by the Supreme Court, writes Helen Cordon. The public consultation focuses

Professional Footballer Sara Bjork Gunnarsdottir (SBG) has recently won a case she raised in the FIFA Football Tribunal against her ex-club, Olympique Lyonnais (Lyon), for maternity pay, writes Emma Nicol. SBG was employed by the club Lyon as a footballer in 2021 when she informed them of her p

The Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Bill was introduced into the UK Parliament last week and makes provision for minimum service levels to be stipulated for health services, fire and rescue services, education services, transport services, decommissioning of nuclear installations and management of

Ahead of a major ruling of the Supreme Court next month, Cat MacLean takes a look at the jurisprudence of online fraud. Read part one here. Following the Appeal Court decision in Philipp, Sekers settled in due course for a substantial six-figure sum. Meantime, though, Barclays were given leave to ap

Ahead of a major ruling of the Supreme Court next month, Cat MacLean takes a look at the jurisprudence of online fraud. Part two follows tomorrow. Online fraud has been on the rise for many years. The pace of attacks has quickened with the pandemic and the advent of working from home. In most cases,

Approximately one per cent of the population are either trans women, trans men or non-binary. Trans people don’t identify as the gender they were assigned at birth. Being transgender is a protected characteristic under the Equality Act (“gender reassignment”) – it is unlawful

Politically and economically, 2022 was a tumultuous year. Despite an encouraging start, by the third quarter it was clear that Scotland’s property sector was being impacted by spiralling inflation, soaring energy costs and increasing interest rates, writes Barry McKeown. Yet, let me recall som

James Milliken of Northern Ireland law firm Carson McDowell reports that we are beginning to see artificial intelligence take on complex tasks such as assisting lawyers with drafting contracts. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an ever-increasing role in our everyday lives. It is used in Face ID an

The first casualty of the gender recognition regime is freedom of speech, writes barrister Naomi Cunningham. Section 29(2)(d) of the Scotland Act 1998 provides that an Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far is it is incompatible with any of the Convention rights. The UK government may not

Marc Penman comments on two cases that could have serious implications for sport worldwide. Ordinarily, when we discuss competition in the sporting world we are usually focused on individuals and/or teams going toe to toe and battling it out for glory and bragging rights over one another. Recently h

In Spire Property Development LLP & Anor v Withers LLP [2022] EWCA Civ 970, the Court of Appeal (E&W) considered the scope of a solicitor's duty when posed questions by clients where the original retainer had ended, writes Edward Grundy. The developers bought two neighbouring properties

Paul Motion considers a recent advocate general's opinion from the Court of Justice of the European Union. Is a person who makes a subject access request entitled to copies of all documents such as emails?

Property expert Phil Harris, a director at Shepherd and Wedderburn's private wealth & tax team, discusses the state of the Scottish housing market in 2022 and what to expect in 2023, as vol­umes appear to return to pre-pan­demic lev­els. The 2022 Scottish housing market and