News

The Criminal Justice Committee has questioned whether the Scottish government’s proposal to include criminal justice social work in the National Care Service (NCS) is necessary, citing concerns over a lack of evidence to support the change. In a report published today, the committee examine pr

The Spanish government has been rebuked by judges for excluding bullfighting from a youth culture subsidy scheme. Under an initiative launched last year, young people can apply to receive a €400 culture voucher after they turn 18 which can be used for a range of cultural and artistic activities

Legislation creating protest-free buffer zones around abortion clinics in Northern Ireland has received Royal Assent and become law. The Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) Act was one of the last pieces of legislation approved by MLAs shortly before the Northern Ireland Assembly dissolved at the

Land leaders have joined forces to complete a development programme to ensure Scotland’s land is managed responsibly.

The man accused of building the bomb that destroyed Pan Am flight 103 over Lockerbie in 1988 has pleaded not guilty before a US court.

The Scottish Legal Complaints Commission (SLCC) has published an open letter to the profession – reproduced below – on the duty to co-operate to support an efficient and effective complaints system. For a number of years, we have been raising concerns about a significant minority of firm

Law firms’ commitment to pro bono work remained strong in 2022, despite the global crisis, according to a new report from the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The 2022 TrustLaw Index of Pro Bono is the fifth edition of the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s survey mapping the global scale and trend

Monday 20 February at 6.00pm – SSC Library, Edinburgh The Scottish Young Lawyers' Association is hosting an event for those interested in hearing what life is like as a judicial assistant at the Supreme Court.

Lord Beckett has been appointed as chair of the Judicial Institute. The Lord President, Lord Carloway made the appointment after Lord Armstrong intimated his intention to resign as chair.

The Scottish government’s current consultation on restrictions around alcohol advertising and sponsorship has attracted considerable attention. I have myself described it as a “prohibitionists charter”. The consultation was launched on 17 November 2022 and closes on 9 March 2023. I

A Crown appeal against a four-year sentence given to a former GP after he was convicted of raping a woman in a hotel room in Stirling has been refused by the High Court of Justiciary. The respondent, MG, a foreign national with indefinite leave to remain in the UK, was convicted after trial of rapin

In a cautionary tale for public speakers everywhere, a law professor has apologised after a microphone caught him telling a student to "fuck off". Daniel Capra, an adjunct professor at the prestigious Columbia Law School in New York City, inadvertently muttered profanity directly into his microphone

Dear Editor, As Thomas Ross notes in yesterday’s Scottish Legal News, the current common law requires provocation in a murder case to take the form of sexual infidelity or physical violence. Mr Ross sought comments on the Scottish Law Commission’s provisional view that the partial defenc

The Supreme Court has rejected two unionist legal challenges to the lawfulness of the Northern Ireland Protocol. One of the two challenges, which were heard together last year, was brought by a group of senior unionist politicians led by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) leader Jim Allister and inclu

In her piece on media coverage of the Scottish government’s proposed gender-recognition reform  (1 February 2023), Gwyneth King criticises those who have pointed out that women’s organisations which signed a statement in support of the Scottish government’s policy are recipien