News

Armed police officers stormed a hotel after a Harry Potter fan with a wand was mistaken for a knife-wielding lunatic. Police were despatched to the hotel in Enderby, near Leicester, after a member of the public reported seeing a man carrying "a large knife", The Guardian reports.

The Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill was passed at the Scottish Parliament on 20 December 2023 and received Royal Assent on 30 January. Stewart Dunbar looks at two aspects of the Act that impact the individual who created (or plans to create) the trust, known as the truster. It is essential tha

The Scottish Housing Regulator (SHR) has emphasised the importance of social landlords listening to tenants and service users in its new regulatory framework and statutory guidance. Published today, the new framework, which will go live from 1 April, sets out how SHR will regulate social landlo

Deborah Anne Lovell has been appointed as a new part-time legal member of the Scottish Land Court. Ms Lovell has also been appointed by the Scottish ministers as a part-time legal member of the Lands Tribunal for Scotland.

Edinburgh Law School’s Professor Burkhard Schafer is participating in a 10-month project led by the University of Strathclyde that aims to help researchers and their institutions make informed decisions on how they use generative AI. The project has received £100,000 in funding from REPH

This year’s Macfadyen Lecture is to be given by Dame Siobhan Keegan, Lady Chief Justice of Northern Ireland, on Thursday 18 April. Her subject will be evaluating the expert witness in the modern legal landscape.

Lord Malcolm is to deliver the 2024 Dundee Law School Alumni Lecture. Lord Malcolm graduated with an LLB in Scots Law from the University of Dundee in 1975. He became an advocate in 1977 and was appointed as a Queen’s Counsel in 1990. In 2001 he was elected dean of the Faculty of Advocates, an

The Lord President, Lord Carloway, has made three new appointments of salaried employment judges. The new judges are:

Jones Whyte has announced the appointment of Ruth McIntosh as its first professional support lawyer. Ms McIntosh, a Law Society certified specialist in essential business and leadership, joined Jones Whyte in 2020 and has played a key role in the firm’s growth.

A village in France has voted to ban people from using their smartphones in public. Seine-Port, a village of fewer than 2,000 people around an hour's drive from Paris, backed the measure in a local referendum earlier this month, The Guardian reports.

The Law Society of Scotland has been accredited as a leader in diversity, recognising its achievements and commitment to lead workplace best practice in Scotland. The gold status Leader in Diversity accreditation from the National Centre for Diversity builds upon the Law Society’s initial awar

Reflecting on 25 years of the Scottish Parliament as well as a focus on the future will be the central themes of plans announced to mark the Parliament’s institutions’ quarter century. The Scottish Parliament plans include a year-long programme of engagement designed to involve people th

Scottish Secretary Alister Jack has called on the Scottish government for an update on proposals to split the role of the lord advocate. Mr Jack has asked First Minister Humza Yousaf to explain what is causing the delay on consulting on the separation of the role, as pledged in the SNP's 2021 manife

Members of the profession and others will be saddened to learn of the death on 2 February of Professor Philip Love, who was formerly the professor of conveyancing and professional practice of law at the University of Aberdeen and latterly, vice-chancellor of the University of Liverpool.

Scottish government plans for a new trans law which could see parents jailed for stopping their children changing gender have been condemned as “jellyfish legislation" because they are "impossible to grasp" and have "a sting in the tail” in a legal opinion by double silk Aidan O'Neill KC