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A mother who applied for an order under the Child Abduction and Custody Act 1985 on the basis that her child had been wrongfully retained in Scotland has had her petition refused on the ground that the child was not habitually resident in Italy. The petitioner, JP, shared parental res

A mother who was found by the English High Court of Justice to have wrongfully retained her children in England after moving from Germany with them has successfully appealed the decision in the Court of Appeal (Civil Division).  The children, aged 6 and 8 at the time of the application, ha

When Amanda Millar put herself forward to become president of the Law Society of Scotland she wanted to make a difference to her profession during a time of considerable challenges. What she did not know back in the relative calm of 2018 was that by the time she took over from John Mulholland in Jun

An asylum seeker who claimed to fear persecution from a criminal gang in El Salvador has succeeded in challenging the finding of the Upper Tribunal that there were no arguable grounds of appeal against the original decision.  The petitioner, MF, argued that the First-tier Tribunal judge ha

Benjamin Bestgen takes a timeous look at freedom of expression. See his last primer, on marriage, here. Evelyn Hall, the author of The Life of Voltaire, famously acquainted us with a summary of Voltaire’s belief in freedom of speech: “I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to th

Ten police officers who brought a petition for judicial review of the decision by their superior to conduct misconduct proceedings against them using WhatsApp messages sent to and from them have had their reclaiming motion against the refusal of the Lord Ordinary of their petition refused by the Inn

A taxi driver who had his licence suspended by a local authority on the ground of no longer being a fit and proper person to hold such a licence has had his appeal against the decision refused.  Scott McMillan argued that West Lothian Council had made several errors in their cons

The environmental organisation Greenpeace has had its petition for judicial review of the decision to allow the development of a North Sea oil field refused. The Secretary of State for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy, the first respondent to the petition, granted consent to BP

A Nigerian citizen with no right to remain in the UK who was ordered to be deported following the end of a prison sentence has successfully appealed a decision of the Upper Tribunal that his deportation would not disproportionately interfere with the ECHR rights of his family.  The appellant,&n

As a 17-year-old, I first met the late, great, and sadly missed David Lessels (1949-2018) at a law school information day. I brashly declared I would become an advocate. He smiled wryly. Fast forward several penniless years to my traineeship. At last I was earning. Two years later, I even had some m

Criminal defence work may be a tough gig, but for an aspiring writer of crime fiction it has one key draw: it throws up a huge amount of material to work from. Indeed, when Russel & Aitken partner William McIntyre decided to turn his hand to novel writing a little over a decade ago he found he h

The son of a deceased dairy farmer who entered into two loan agreements in respect of two farms has succeeded in obtaining a proof in his action to reduce the agreements.  William Lindsay argued that the loan facilities, which concerned one farm in England and another in Scotland, were obt

A Nigerian citizen who was refused indefinite leave to remain has successfully challenged the decision of the Home Secretary that there were no exceptional circumstances justifying the exercise of discretion in her favour. Ruth Awa was temporarily unlawfully present in the UK during a period be

The High Court in London recently heard an application which had as its aim the exclusion of evidence obtained in the course of law enforcement activity into the EncroChat platform. For reasons which this article will hopefully make obvious, that application will in time be remembered as simply the

A sheriff in Perth has absolved a man of any wrongdoing in a car accident that took place on a back road near Blackford in the Perth and Kinross area.  The pursuer, ER, claimed the defender CD had struck her car while travelling at excessive speed around a bend, and sought damage