News

Leaders of Golden Dawn, the formerly insurgent far-right party of Greek politics, have been jailed after a court ruled the party is a criminal organisation linked to violent attacks including a 2013 murder. Party founder and leader Nikolaos Michaloliakos, along with six former Golden Dawn parliament

Scottish comic book writer Mark Millar, whose Kick-Ass series spawned two Hollywood movies, has finally fought off years-long litigation based on outlandish allegations of plagiarism. American writer Michael Bennett claimed that Mr Millar plagiarised large elements of his own virtually-unknown serie

A former apprentice mechanic who was involved in a road-accident while testing a client’s Harley-Davidson motorbike has successfully obtained an award of damages after being involved in a road accident that gave him a phobia of being killed or injured on a motorbike. Stuart Conway was wor

Lawyers have voiced their opposition to any entrenchment of remote justice following comments from the Lord President that Scotland's legal system will not return to the status quo. Since the lockdown in March, the Scottish Courts and Tribunals Service (SCTS) has developed new digital court inf

MSPs on the Holyrood's Justice Committee have supported the general principles of the Defamation Bill. Members of the committee have endorsed much of the detail proposed in the Scottish government’s bill, which followed significant work from the Scottish Law Commission.

The UK government has been urged to repatriate foreign fighters and their families detained in camps in north-east Syria following an intervention by UN human rights experts. In a court filing, the UN special rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedoms while countering terrorism and the UN s

The Home Secretary and Prime Minister's comments critical of lawyers "feed into a febrile atmosphere", the new president of the Law Society of England and Wales has said in the wake of a knife attack on a lawyer. David Greene, 64, told The Times that while it would be "wrong" to suggest the attack f

In the UK around 95 per cent of Britain’s 4.9 million private businesses employ less than 10 people. While 75 per cent are sole proprietors, another 20 per cent have up to only nine employees. This means that many of these businesses are not in a position to implement a Group Life Protection s

Leo Mattersdorf, friend and accountant of Albert Einstein, claimed the great physicist once said to him during a meal that "the hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax". Benjamin Bestgen this week takes a look at this marmite subject. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. I

Belgium has said it will invoke a 350-year-old treaty allowing Flemish fishermen to fish in British waters if a post-Brexit fishing deal cannot be struck. The charter, which was rediscovered in Belgian archives in the 1960s, was issued by King Charles II in 1666 as thanks to the city of Bruges for h

A sex offender who was convicted of indecently assaulting his cousin, who died before the beginning of the trial diet, has had his appeal against the conviction on the grounds that the trial was unfair refused. The appellant, AS, was also convicted of the indecent assault, attempted rape, and r

Holyrood’s Local Government and Communities Committee is seeking views on a new bill which aims to increase private tenants’ protection by limiting rent increases and allowing them to seek a “fair” rent. The Fair Rents (Scotland) Bill, a member’s bill from Pauline McNei

Personal data transfers between the UK and the EU after Brexit are "in jeopardy" because the UK's privacy watchdog does not meet strict EU standards, privacy experts have warned. The need for the UK to pass an adequacy assessment to allow frictionless data transfers to continue after Brexit was high

On Wednesday 21 October, the Equality and Human Rights Commission Scotland will host a webinar to discuss the use and impact of sexual history evidence and personal information in rape and sexual assault trials in Scotland. The webinar follows on from the commission’s review of legislation, ca

Three new videos will present short biographies of inspiring women in the Scottish legal profession. President of the Mental Health Tribunal for Scotland, Laura Dunlop QC, will feature in the first in the series of short films produced by Ashurst Women's Network, in collaboration with First 100 Year