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The High Court of Justiciary has refused an appeal by a Cumbernauld man against his conviction at Airdrie Sheriff Court for assaulting another man near a local shop with a knife. Gary Orr received a 30-month cumulo penalty after being found guilty of assaulting the complainer, Patrick Clar

The independent inquiry investigating the construction of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital Campus (QEUH) in Glasgow and the Royal Hospital for Children and Young People and Department of Clinical Neurosciences (RHCYP/DCN) in Edinburgh has today began hearing from affected patients and fa

Pictured: Michael Watson (left) and Euan McVicar Pinsent Masons has bolstered its climate change team with the appointment of two lawyers to senior positions.

Judicial independence is undemocratic, yet it is essential to democracy’s proper functioning. How is judicial independence to be protected from powerful political and popular pressures on judges to rule this way or that when the judiciary has ‘neither force nor will, but merely judgment&

We are now starting to see employment tribunals grappling with Covid-19 related workplace issues. Some of these involve claims from employees with less than two years' service seeking to argue that their dismissals were automatically unfair for health and safety reasons, writes Julie Keir. Automatic

Strathclyde Law School's Centre for Law, Crime & Justice will lead a new study into the quality of sentencing data. Commissioned by the Judicial Council of the Republic of Ireland, Professor Cyrus Tata will lead an international team of experts to examine the quality of available data about sent

Professor Martin Hogg has been named head of NUI Galway School of Law with effect from November. Professor Hogg will join NUI Galway from the University of Edinburgh, where he has served as head of school and dean of law since 2017.

Elaine Elder discusses the implications of the new policy adopted by Aberdeen City Council to tackle the local empty-housing crisis. Aberdeen City Council has adopted a new policy to tackle the local empty-housing crisis.

India's most senior judge has said that the use of English in courts should be abandoned and that the wearing of colonial court dress should be discarded. While English is not recognised as one of the 22 scheduled languages of India, historical attempts to bring an end to its use in other contexts h

Funeral directors in the UK have been ordered to display a standardised price list in their windows and on their websites. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) gave the funerals sector three months to implement changes to make it easier for families to arrange a funeral within their budget.

The English Court of Appeal has allowed an appeal by the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions against a decision that a widow of a formerly polygamous marriage was entitled to Bereavement Payment and Widowed Parent’s Allowance. Nasim Akhtar, the respondent, had married her husband, A, in P

Time bar is a very complex area of law in Scotland relating to the period in which a claim for breach of duty can be pursued. The Scottish government has recently reformed the law and passed the Prescription (Scotland) Act 2018 – but it is not yet in force. In the meantime, the recent dec

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) will take Teletext Holidays to court unless the firm takes urgent action to improve how it handles refunds to package holiday customers. On 26 May, the CMA announced that Truly Holdings Ltd, the company that operates Teletext Holidays, and its sister compa

CMS is teaming up with fellow experts to host a free-to-attend event exploring how an increased focus on the environment will impact Scotland’s renewable energy sector going forward. The latest Future of Renewables webinar takes place at 09.30 on Tuesday, 5 October.

Holyrood's Constitution, Europe, External Affairs and Culture Committee has launched an inquiry into the Scottish government’s international work. The committee is seeking to engage with stakeholders on what the Scottish government’s external affairs policy could look like, recommend wha