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Baroness Kennedy of The Shaws KC is to deliver the Ruth Adler Human Rights Lecture 2024 at Edinburgh Law School next month. Born and brought up in Glasgow, she is a bencher of Gray’s Inn, an honorary writer to the Signet and the recipient of 42 honorary degrees and fellowships from many univer

A man linked to serious organised crime has been jailed for four years and four months after his involvement in drug deals worth hundreds of thousands of pounds was exposed.  Martin Murphy, 45, used three handles on the EncroChat communications platform favoured by serious and organised crimina

The Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission has referred the case of AB to the High Court of Justiciary for determination. In November 2021, the applicant pled guilty to a charge of contravening section 4(3)(b) of the Misuse of Drugs Act 1971. The applicant was sentenced to 50 months’ impris

Scottish Information Commissioner David Hamilton attended a conference in Ukraine last week to develop a framework to balance information and security concerns for countries operating under martial law.  The commissioner responded to concerns of non-compliance by Ukrainian public authorities by

Scottish Lesbians, joined by The Lesbian Project, LGB Alliance and members of Lesbian Labour, have been granted permission to submit a written intervention in the forthcoming Supreme Court appeal brought by For Women Scotland on the Gender Recognition Act and its interplay with the Equality Act.&nb

Police say they seized a bag labelled "definitely not a bag full of drugs" – which turned out to be full of drugs.

A man convicted of possessing and selling wild peregrine falcon chicks for large sums of money has agreed to pay back more than £27,000 in a proceeds of crime confiscation action. Lewis Hall, 24, was ordered to carry out 150 hours of unpaid work over 15 months and banned from possessing or hav

Emergency legislation will be introduced to Parliament to contribute to the "sustainable long-term management" of Scotland’s prison population, Justice Secretary Angela Constance has told MSPs. The bill, to be introduced in November, will propose a change to the release point for short-term pr

Crown opposition to bail is being relaxed because of the prison crisis in Scotland, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain KC has told Holyrood. She said: "Prosecutors will always act in the public interest and do their utmost to keep people safe from the harm caused by crime.

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. What did Al Jazeera’s investigation into Israeli war crimes in Gaza reveal?

Children’s rights practitioners and policymakers will gather in Glasgow next week as part of a conference examining the experiences of children within the Scottish justice system. Speakers including Bragi Gudbrandsson, vice chair for the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child and founder of t

The Scottish Parliament has announced the launch of a ‘people’s panel’ which will consider the question ‘What does Scotland need to do differently to reduce drug-related harms?’. The people’s panel, made up of 25 people from across Scotland who are broadly represe

Scotland's housing market is showing promising signs of growth, with the highest level of optimism since early 2022, according to the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS).

Holmes Mackillop has promoted Glasgow-based senior solicitor Kathleen Macleod to associate. In her new role she will assist property team directors Kevin Thompson and Amir Ismail to supervise the paralegals who comprise the firm’s residential conveyancing team.

An Iranian couple have between them received nine convictions, lashings and prison time for, among other things, having a pet cat. Niloufar Ghazaleh and Mohammad Ali Moghimi, a married couple living in the Middle Eastern country's Isfahan province, drew the ire of authorities after breaking mandator