Iain Mitchell QC clears some of the confusion surrounding artificial intelligence ahead of the AI Beyond the Hype event in Edinburgh this month. In October, 2017, Saudi Arabia conferred citizenship on Sophia. The puzzling thing is that Sophia is a robot, even more human-looking than the archety
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Murderer who claimed ‘miscarriage of justice’ over 999 call evidence loses appeal against conviction
A man found guilty of murder who claimed that the trial judge’s decision to refuse to allow part of a 999 call to be played in court, during which recording a voice could be heard saying words to the effect that one of his co-accused “did it”, has had an appeal against his convicti
£10,000 damages claim over ‘unlawful’ refusal to release prisoner on home detention curfew dismissed
A short-term prisoner who claimed that a decision not to release him on a home detention curfew licence breached his human rights has had an action for £10,000 damages dismissed. Thomas Scott sued the Scottish Ministers, claiming that his continued imprisonment following a Parole Boa
Seosamh Gráinséir recounts the Yelverton saga, litigated across the Scottish, English and Irish courts and which resulted in marriage reform in Ireland. On 15 August 1857, Maria Theresa Longworth and Major William Charles Yelverton got married in a Catholic Church near Rostrevor. They
There is a right of privacy in the common law of Scotland, a Court of Session judge has ruled. The court held for the first time that the common law right exists in Scots law, and that its nature and scope is similar to that protected under article 8 of the European Convention on Huma
A Singapore-based banker who raised an action for damages in Scotland following a refusal by the Court of Appeal in London to refer a question of EU law to the European Court of Justice, after his claim for unfair dismissal in the UK employment tribunal was rejected on the grounds that the tribunal
A man accused of sexual offences against his daughter has successfully challenged an attempt by prosecutors to rely on his admissions to a children’s hearing as evidence to corroborate the charges in the criminal proceedings against him. In the first case of its kind, a High Court ju
A teacher who was “excluded” from a school after raising a personal injury action against a Scottish local authority following a fall at work, and then sought damages for a “depressive illness” he sustained as a result, has had his claim for “psychiatric injury” d
A French national whose application for homelessness assistance was rejected by a Scottish local authority has had a petition for judicial review of the decision dismissed. Augustin-Roger Mokombo-Eboma claimed that, as an EU citizen, he was entitled to homelessness assistance in Scotland and that&nb
An Indian man whose application for leave to remain in the UK based on his marriage to a British woman was refused has successfully challenged the decision. A judge in the Court of Session reduced the decision by the Home Office after ruling that officials failed to take into consideration
A councillor suspended for making inappropriate remarks to a man seeking to renew his taxi licence has had his appeal against suspension refused by a court, in a case providing that when acting in a quasi-judicial capacity the enhanced protection afforded politicians to make political comment, under
The mother of a child with selective mutism has been unsuccessful in establishing that it would be in the child’s best interests to relocate to her native Germany and have that be the child's principal residence. Sheriff Ian Cruickshank heard evidence from MK, the pursuer, who sought a residen
A couple who claimed their company’s solicitor had been negligent in his conduct during a purchase transaction have failed to establish negligence. Sajjad and Rumella Soofi brought an action against Jeffrey Martin Dykes for professional negligence in respect of their purchase of
A patient who sued his local health service over alleged failures in diagnosis and treatment of symptoms affecting his right leg and foot has had a damages claim dismissed. Barrie Spark raised a “negligence” action against Western Isles NHS, Benbecula Medical Practice, Uist and
A judge has questioned why the courts require facts to be "squeezed into a Moorov straitjacket" instead of recognising a more general principle admitting similar fact evidence where relevance is established. Lord Glennie made the obiter comments in a judgment allowing the appeal against conviction o