News

The European Commission is expected to decide this week that data protection standards are high enough in the UK to allow personal data transfers between the UK and the EU to continue. The adequacy assessment has huge significance for businesses operating across the UK and the EU. It has attracted e

Jury trials have returned to Aberdeen after almost an entire year, with the opening of a remote jury centre. The Vue cinema on Shiprow now accommodates jurors.

Gerry Sinclair never planned to spend close to two decades as chief executive and principal solicitor at the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC). Having cut his teeth at Ross Harper & Murphy before spending 15 years as a named partner at Sinclair McCormick & Giusti Martin, he e

Petitions are at their lowest level in nine months and are five per cent lower than the average monthly pre-Covid level, according to new figures from the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS). This shows the volumes of cases being progressed each month in the High Court, Sheriff Court and Ju

Tayside and Fife is enjoying a mini property boom as supply exceeds demand throughout the region. The high demand has led to a surge in prices for all residential properties, with price increases reported locally of seven per cent.

If we truly want to reduce offending within our communities in Scotland then we must move beyond tokenistic, meaningless terms like being “hard” or “soft” on crime. We need to be cleverer, writes Iain Smith. ‘Smart Justice’ offers a chance to stand back from the c

Scotland's Commissioner for Children and Young People will deliver Glasgow Caledonian University's inaugural Law and The Common Good lecture. Bruce Adamson, who will be joined by two of his young advisers, will outline how the rights framework can effect change, at the online event on March 15.

Turkish human rights lawyer Eren Keskin has been sentenced to more than six years' imprisonment for terror offences. Ms Keskin, who co-chairs the Ankara-based NGO the Human Rights Association (İHD), was one of four defendants in a case concerning Özgür Gündem, a daily newspaper which

This week Benjamin Bestgen considers swearing, without which many of us would struggle to get through the day. See his last jurisprudential primer here. Unrelated to jurisprudential questions, a colleague recently mentioned the Jersey employment tribunal case of Wilkinson v Fairway Trust Limited [20

An eight-year-old border collie has joined the ranks of the canine elite after being left over €4 million in a will. Late bath tycoon Bill Dorris left $5 million from his estate – around €4.2 million or £3.6 million – to his beloved dog Lulu.

The Inner House of the Court of Session has refused a reclaiming motion challenging a decision to allow a petition for rectification of a Deed of Conditions relating to a parking garage in Edinburgh to proceed to a proof. Lothian Amusements Ltd, the 57th respondent to the petition raised b

The Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has denied claims it gave false assurances that a sheriff court was safe to attend last December following a Covid-19 outbreak. Seven members of staff at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court self-isolated before Christmas after testing positive for

Many will think of defamation as the primary recourse in battles between public figures and those who seek to comment on them but a recent High Court decision in England and Wales (Sussex v Associated Newspapers Ltd [2021] EWHC 273 (Ch)) shows that, under the right circumstances, protection of priva

A major court defeat for oil and gas giant Shell could herald the end of "a long chapter of impunity" for multinationals implicated in human rights abuses overseas, lawyers and campaigners have said. The UK Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Ogale and Bille communities in the Niger Delta can bri

BPP University Law School is to offer students what is believed to be the first class in making small talk, The Times reports. Georgie Nightingall, who is running the course in chitchat and networking, said that while small talk is often maligned, it is important for social advancement.