Opinion

The Johnny Depp case shows you should never go to court before quantifying the risk, writes Peter Graham. Last week the newspapers reported the judgment in the case of Johnny Depp’s libel action against News Group Newspapers.

The re-introduction of Crown preference and the resulting change in the order of priority of creditors on insolvency was announced as part of the Autumn budget in 2018, way before anyone had heard of Covid-19, and was originally due to come into force on 6 April 2020. It was delayed until 1 December

What's in a legal system? Benjamin Bestgen supplies the principal ingredients. See his last primer here. Last week’s article ended with lawyer and author Christopher Brown’s suggestion that fantasy authors could do more to make law and legal systems an explicit focus point in their works

In this article, Mark Conway describes his experience as a party litigant. Mr Conway was convicted and imprisoned in 2017 after defrauding Dundee City Council of more than £1 million, due to a gambling addiction. He represented himself at the High Court after his case was referred to the

This is National Pro Bono Week which provides a useful opportunity to think about when and how lawyers provide legal services to those in need. The process of going through a legal dispute, whether that is civil or criminal, is a stressful and complex one for most people even under the best of circu

The financial hurricane resulting from the coronavirus crisis is now beginning to touch down on the personal finances of millions of Scots and like all great storms, is going to leave a trail of destruction in its aftermath, with debris being made up from broken tenancy, mortgage, and consumer credi

Dr Thomas Muinzer details the work of the Scottish Climate Emergency Legal Network this year. Since its inaugural meeting at the Legal Services Agency, Glasgow, on January 20 at the beginning of this year, the Scottish Climate Emergency Legal Network (SCELN) has been meeting on a regular basis, enga

Andrew Stevenson, Secretary of the Scottish Law Agents Society (SLAS) criticises attacks on “leftie lawyers” made by Boris Johnson and Priti Patel at this year’s Conservative Party Conference. Human rights are not an academic’s plaything or a means of chicanery or obstruction

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