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Environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have taken on an increased significance in recent years, and the pace of change is accelerating. ESG performance is becoming an additional standard by which businesses are being judged by consumers, investors and other stakeholders. With incr

The Scottish government is to widen the ambit of legislation pardoning miners arrested during the 1984-85 strike to include family members, The Herald reports. Until now, the bill had only covered miners themselves.

More than 500kg of cocaine worth in excess of 50 million Swiss francs (£41m) has been found in a container of coffee bean bags bound for Nestle's Nespresso factory in Romont in western Switzerland. Police were told on Monday by Nespresso that staff had found a white substance while unloading t

A round-up of human rights stories from around the world. Latin American feminists vow to protect abortion rights at home after shock US ruling | The Guardian

The UK Supreme Court has refused to hear an appeal in a high-profile case aimed at preventing the prescription of puberty-blocking drugs to transgender children under the age of 16. In Bell v Tavistock and Portman NHS Trust, lawyers for Keira Bell – a woman who said she regretted taking pubert

Prime Minister Boris Johnson has been accused of undermining the rule of law after claiming left-wing “legal eagles” were trying to thwart his plans to send asylum seekers to Rwanda. I. Stephanie Boyce, president of the Law Society, said it was "misleading and dangerous for the prime min

The Scottish Sentencing Council has published three short animated videos about its sentencing young people guideline. Each video focuses on one of the guideline’s key themes: The council premiered the videos at a webinar it held jointly with the Children and Young People’s Centre for Ju

The Scottish Law Commission has launched a public consultation on the law reform work that it should carry out in the future. The commission is seeking views on which areas of Scots law are most in need of reform. Reform may be needed because the law is causing difficulties in practice, for example

An English judge has ruled that a bookmaker was not obliged to pay out over £250,000 after one of its agents registered a bet ten times higher than the one actually placed by a customer on a single horse race. The claimant, James Longley, argued that on a proper construction of the words he ex

Satanists have demanded that their flag be raised over Boston city headquarters following a ruling by the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS). The court this week ruled that the city violated the rights of a Christian group after snubbing its formal request for their flag to be flown outside

Alice Minick believes the Court of Session case Van Oord UK Ltd v Dragados, which overturned an adjudicator's decision on the grounds of a breach of natural justice, provides an interesting opportunity to examine a successful challenge of an adjudicator's decision. It is unusual these days

Human rights laws are an impediment to the Scottish government's ability to ban protests outside of abortion clinics, Nicola Sturgeon has said. Ms Sturgeon said progress was being stalled on introducing a 150m buffer zone outside clinics to keep keep anti-abortion campaigners away from women using t

Members of the Faculty of Advocates and a number of devils played a key role in helping law students from the University of Edinburgh prepare for a recent major international mooting competition. The Willem C Vis International Commercial Arbitration Moot, now in its 29th year, featured over 300 team

The next steps in reforming Scotland’s aquaculture regulatory system have been outlined by Rural Affairs Secretary Mairi Gougeon. Speaking at an industry sector conference in Aviemore, Ms Gougeon announced the formation of a consenting task group to make rapid progress on streamlining the aqua

Reforms to remove legal exemptions to give live-in domestic workers access to the minimum wage are important but will be difficult to enforce because of Britain’s immigration rules, according to a new study. People who live and work in private households have been excluded from minimum wage re