News

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

Scotland's bottle deposit return scheme could result in an unlawful trade barrier with the rest of the UK, Aidan O'Neill KC has said. The initiative, due to launch in August, aims to boost recycling by means of a 20p deposit on single-use drinks bottles and cans.

The number of companies filing for administration in Scotland fell by a quarter in 2022 despite rising inflation, weaker trade and geopolitical uncertainty continuing to put businesses under pressure. Analysis of notices in The Gazette by Interpath Advisory reveals that a total of 32 companies fell

Louise Shiels discusses an English case in which the First Tier Tribunal Property Chamber issued what is likely to be the first remediation contribution order under section 124 of the Building Safety Act 2022. The application was made by 18 leaseholders of a high-rise self-contained block of fl

CMS has advised HIMA Paul Hildebrandt GmbH (HIMA) on its acquisition of the entire issued share capital of Sella Limited and its subsidiaries, including Sella Controls (Sella), from the company’s management shareholders. Headquartered in Bruehl, Germany, HIMA is a provider of safety-related au

Dear Editor, On 23 Jan 2023 you reported that Drug Treatment and Testing Orders (DTTOs) were standing at their lowest number (360) over the preceding eight years which had averaged 560 Orders per annum.

A judge of the Upper Tribunal for Scotland has quashed an eviction order following an appeal by the tenants of a property in Armadale after finding that the First-tier Tribunal had wrongly classed the tenancy as a private residential tenancy. Siblings Gerard and Katrine Boyle sought to challenge the