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UK government plans to address ‘legal but harmful’ online content threaten freedom of speech and would be ineffective, peers have warned. Instead, existing laws should be enforced properly and any serious harms not already illegal should be criminalised, according to a House of Lords Com

Lidl has been prevented from selling a “redesigned” own brand version of an upmarket gin. William Grant and Sons Irish Brands, makers of Hendrick’s Gin, have succeeded in the Inner House, having won an interim interdict earlier this year.

Recipients of fiscal fines who refuse to pay them are going unpunished, figures from the Scottish Conservatives have shown. Last month, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told Holyrood that refusal to pay such fines “is treated as a request by the alleged offender to be prosecuted for the offe

The European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) has ruled that the pre-trial detention of a man suspected of belonging to a terrorist organisation in Turkey was a violation of his human rights under Article 5 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Tekin Akgün was suspected of b

Commercial property investment in Scotland showed signs of recovery and further growth is expected as Covid-19 restrictions ease, Colliers has revealed. A new analysis showed that more than £400 million was invested during the second quarter of 2021, up from the same period of 2020 and up from

Morgan O'Neill, a director at Thorntons, has obtained industry accreditation in information privacy. The director of data protection services at the firm recently passed her certified information privacy professional/Europe (CIPP/E) exam, awarded by the International Association of Privacy Professio

The Northern Ireland Assembly has unanimously rejected deeply controversial UK government proposals to end all criminal prosecutions linked to the Troubles. Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis last week set out the government's proposal for a "statute of limitations" which would prevent the pro

A new £2 coin launched by The Royal Mint commemorates the 250th anniversary of the birth of Sir Walter Scott. Scott, who was born in 1771, was an advocate as well as an author and is widely regarded as the Faculty of Advocates' most celebrated member.

Over a thousand computers used to mine cryptocurrency have been crushed by police using a steamroller. The 1,069 bitcoin mining rigs were seized by police in Malaysia after miners allegedly stole electricity worth $2 million from the power grid.

A post-mortem examination of a baby conducted against the wishes of his parents has been ruled a breach of Articles 8 and 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR). Leyla Polat, an Austrian national, became pregnant with her son Y.M. in 2006 and was told by doctors that her baby was l

Lord Matthews has been appointed to the Second Division of the Inner House of the Court of Session, effective from 1 August 2021. The Lord President, Lord Carloway, and the Lord Justice Clerk, Lady Dorrian, recommended the appointment to allow court business to continue to be dealt with efficiently

Scotland's new justice secretary has said he will not shy away from reforms that would raise the conviction rate in sex cases. Keith Brown said controversial plans for specialist sex crime courts without juries and the abolition of the not proven verdict, whose existence enables more acquittals acco

We have a new justice secretary who, at least in one respect, bears a similarity to his predecessor: he has not made any public statement about the ill-fated prosecution of Whitehouse and Clark, the Rangers’ administrators. I wrote to Keith Brown on 19 May asking about a public inquiry and rec

Donna Brennan has joined BTO Solicitors legal director in its Raeburn Hope office in Helensburgh. In her new role, Ms Brennan will manage the firm's wills, estates and succession planning team and in conjunction with her colleagues in Glasgow and Edinburgh, she will continue the expansion of th

Fiona McLeod provides a brief overview of the changes introduced by the Scottish Government's revised code of conduct for property factors. On 14 July 2021, the Scottish Government published a revised Code of Conduct for Property Factors setting out the minimum standards to which factors should adhe