Features

James Milliken of Northern Ireland law firm Carson McDowell reports that we are beginning to see artificial intelligence take on complex tasks such as assisting lawyers with drafting contracts. Artificial intelligence (AI) plays an ever-increasing role in our everyday lives. It is used in Face ID an

The first casualty of the gender recognition regime is freedom of speech, writes barrister Naomi Cunningham. Section 29(2)(d) of the Scotland Act 1998 provides that an Act of the Scottish Parliament is not law so far is it is incompatible with any of the Convention rights. The UK government may not

Marc Penman comments on two cases that could have serious implications for sport worldwide. Ordinarily, when we discuss competition in the sporting world we are usually focused on individuals and/or teams going toe to toe and battling it out for glory and bragging rights over one another. Recently h

In Spire Property Development LLP & Anor v Withers LLP [2022] EWCA Civ 970, the Court of Appeal (E&W) considered the scope of a solicitor's duty when posed questions by clients where the original retainer had ended, writes Edward Grundy. The developers bought two neighbouring properties

Property expert Phil Harris, a director at Shepherd and Wedderburn's private wealth & tax team, discusses the state of the Scottish housing market in 2022 and what to expect in 2023, as vol­umes appear to return to pre-pan­demic lev­els. The 2022 Scottish housing market and

Pinsent Masons' Scottish corporate team looks back on 2022, having advised on deals worth billions of pounds in various sectors, and discusses its outlook for the year ahead. The stand-out deal in the last 12 months was Ithaca Energy’s £2.5 billion listing on the main London Stock Exchan

Andrew Stevenson relates a tale of paperclips and confusion. My first fumbling attempt to raise an action in the Court of Session taught me a little about the law but a great deal more about the importance of paperclips and heraldry. The contents of the document posed no problem at all, despite the

Dr Felicity Loughlin, lecturer in the history of modern Christianity at Edinburgh University, writes about Scotland’s last persecution for blasphemy as a criminal offence, and what this can tell us about changing attitudes towards religion and free speech in the Victorian age. In 1837, a

Roland Smyth discusses the challenges facing the tourism industry in Scotland as a result of Covid and Brexit and suggests ways to address these issues including investment in staff training, public sector support, and a focus on ESG issues to make the industry more attractive to a wider talent pool

Alan Shanks, head of Scotland at Addleshaw Goddard, reflects on 2022 and looks at what lies ahead in 2023 for the firm and for the wider Scottish landscape. Like many businesses, we approach 2023 with a degree of caution given the macro-economic and geopolitical challenges that will continue to impa

Although the pandemic feels like a lifetime ago, the context of unpredictability in connection to the lockdown, unemployment, several restrictions and the changes in today’s standard of living have impacted mental health severely. In a research conducted by Mind, around one in three adults and

Dr Alessandra Asteriti gives her opinion on a UN expert's advice to a Holyrood committee on the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill. On 13 December 2022, Victor Madrigal-Borloz, the UN Independent Expert on Protection Against Violence and Discrimination Based on Sexual Orientation an

It’s not an insignificant mark of regard of one’s peers for an advocate to be elected Clerk of Faculty as Barney Ross was last month following a six-way contest. It’s also one about which he is typically self-effacing, and he gently points out that his observations are made in a pe

Dr Paul Behrens, a member of the Ending Conversion Practices Expert Advisory Group, responds to criticism of its recent report. Reports by experts tend to be read by experts only, then shelved forever. You can certainly not say the same about the report by the Scottish Expert Advisory Group on Endin

Energy companies are having to keep on top of often complex employment rules and regulations if their offshore rig crews feature personnel from overseas. It’s a particular issue if they were used to hiring European nationals pre-Brexit and are therefore unfamiliar with the sponsorship routes,