Kapil Summan

Removing the not proven verdict from Scots law as it stands will increase the likelihood of miscarriages of justice, an academic has warned. Speaking to Scottish Legal News, David Lorimer, a PhD candidate at Aberdeen University who applies a quantitatively analytical approach to criminal law, said t

Lawyers have sounded a note of caution over making fundamental changes to criminal trials following the publication of a report into jury behaviour and the use of the ‘not proven’ verdict. John Scott QC told Scottish Legal News that the research commissioned by the Scottish government &l

A number of former judges have condemned the suggestion endorsed by Prime Minister Boris Johnson that judicial candidates be vetted by Parliament in a US-style process. The suggestion in the House of Commons last week by the Attorney General Geoffrey Cox QC that “there may very well need to be

It may be more difficult for women lawyers to reach the rank of Queen’s Counsel because of a bias against instructing them in the highest courts, Scotland’s most senior female judge has said. Lady Dorrian, the Lord Justice Clerk, said that appointments to Queen’s Counsel were broad

The Supreme Court's judgment handed down today upholds that of the Inner House to the effect that the advice of the Prime Minister given to the Queen to prorogue Parliament was unlawful, but does so on different grounds "calling upon what it takes to be fundamental constitutional principl

A special power of the Court of Session has been brought to bear on Prime Minister Boris Johnson personally and could allow the Clerk of Court to sign in his place – forcing him to extend Article 50. Dr Stephen Thomson, the leading authority on the nobile officium, which al

It is "as if the prorogation order had never existed" following this morning's judgment from the Inner House of the Court of Session in Cherry – a "remarkable" case that could have "lasting implications for our constitution, for the reviewability of major prerogative powers and

Scotland’s first black professor, a Windrush generation Jamaican who grew up in the racist Britain of the fifties and sixties, has told an audience of lawyers and other professionals in Edinburgh that they must have a "sense of belonging" in order to succeed. Sir Geoff Palmer, an eminent brewi

The Lord Advocate James Wolffe QC's application to intervene in the prorogation case at the Court of Session today has been accepted. Mr Wolffe has lodged applications to intervene in two legal cases aimed at preventing the suspension of the UK Parliament ahead of the Brexit deadline.

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

Scotland is considering the creation of a dedicated sexual offences court, a judge has said. Lord Matthews said in a speech at the Third International Advocacy Conference in Nottingham that a judge-led sexual offences review group is considering the measure.

A council's decision to close a fund supporting the provision of free advice in relation to housing, financial inclusion and social welfare law in Glasgow has been condemned by a leading lawyer.

Complainers in sex crime cases should be given independent legal representation to allay their "perception" that the adversarial trial system is "weighted in favour of the accused", according to new research. The proposal is among a number of recommendations made in a report published today by the S

The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) should extend its victim strategy to complainers of sexual crimes that are prosecuted in the sheriff solemn courts, a review has found.

A sheriff principal has found entirely in favour of the Standards Commission for Scotland, the first ever substantive appeal against one of its decisions, in a case providing that when acting in a quasi-judicial capacity the enhanced protection afforded politicians to make political comment, under t