Opinion

In the thirtieth article in Scottish Legal News' jurisprudential primer series, Benjamin Bestgen takes a look at fictional legal systems. See his last entry here. Early readers of this series may recall my article about depictions of law in utopian fiction. What stood out was that utopian write

Where do you see yourself in five years? When this question is asked at a job interview or work appraisal, no clarification is needed on the starting point for the five years. The words “from now” go without saying. The starting point of a crucial five year period for certain claims in S

Thorntons' Gurjit Pall has urged Scottish businesses to apply for a Home Office sponsor licence as the Brexit transition period draws to a close – to ensure they can still access the best overseas talent. “With the new rules looming, employers should consider applying for a sponsor

To mark Black History Month, SLN is dedicating its ‘Our Legal Heritage’ slot to Scotland’s black history.   For centuries the identity of a young black woman present in a portrait of Lady Elizabeth Murray that adorns the Ambassador’s room of Scone Palace was a myste

An astonishing admission was made by Scotand's Lord Advocate in the Court of Session at the end of August. He conceded that his predecessor's 2012 prosecution of the two men called in as administrators of Rangers Football Club was malicious. This is a shameful milestone in the legal history of this

From around 1835, Inverness Castle was the home of the city’s sheriff court until, earlier this year, all its business was permanently moved to a new “Justice Centre”, more functional but with considerably less style or grandeur. However, the future is precarious for many court bui

Benjamin Bestgen considers how the law might grapple with nanoscience. See his last jurisprudential primer here. Imagine you are trying to conceive a child using artificial methods. A robot so tiny you could breathe it in without noticing selects the most promising sperm and directly inserts it into

In the 1970s Ernst Schumacher, an unlikely named British Coal economist, wrote his famous work Small is Beautiful bequeathing the decade a title that became a mantra, but which arguably made little impact on society. Today, in a reaction to globalisation boosted by Covid lockdowns, a new slogan has

Lord Glennie’s opinion in the recent ‘CH’ appeal ([2020] HCJAC 43) highlights a conflict of judicial thinking, and legal opinion in general, with respect to the Scottish rape shield. Could it be that the real issue is a fundamental lack of trust in the ability of a jury to reach a

The 16-day lockdown across the central belt has ushered in an almighty hangover for drinkers, diners and licensed trade operators alike, writes Audrey Ferrie. Pub and restaurant owners in large swathes of Scotland have been forced to call last orders again, to wipe down the bar counter and to put th

In the UK around 95 per cent of Britain’s 4.9 million private businesses employ less than 10 people. While 75 per cent are sole proprietors, another 20 per cent have up to only nine employees. This means that many of these businesses are not in a position to implement a Group Life Protection s

Leo Mattersdorf, friend and accountant of Albert Einstein, claimed the great physicist once said to him during a meal that "the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax". Benjamin Bestgen this week takes a look at this marmite subject. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. I

Graeme MacLeod comments on a recent Inner House judgment in which police officers in a WhatsApp group lost an appeal against a decision to investigate them. The case of BC v the Chief Constable of the Police Service of Scotland was pursued by a group of 10 Scottish police officers, all of whom were

Solicitor advocate Robert More recounts two days in the life of a defence lawyer, highlighting the dire straits in which practitioners find themselves. The pleas of the profession continue to fall on deaf ears as the Scottish government and, in particular, Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf, do not

Glasgow has raced out of the starting blocks in its bid to double the size of its city centre population over the next 15 years to 40,000, writes Martin Devine. Civic leaders were last week handed a very welcome boost to their ambitions to deliver their City Centre Living Strategy (CCLS) when LGIM R