Opinion

There is an epidemic happening on Scotland’s roads. Road defects, especially potholes, have been blamed for 15 deaths and over 700 injuries since 2013 according to figures obtained from Police Scotland. Any death on Scotland’s roads is a tragedy, but the occurrence is even more tragic wh

Michael Upton, FCIArb, advocate, mediator & arbitrator, discusses an aspect of the Scottish Law Commission’s Discussion Paper No. 175, on Heritable Securities: Non-monetary securities and sub-securities, to which the commission is now seeking responses. As you may know, in the context of h

The Supreme Court has handed down its decision in the appeal of McCulloch & Ors v Forth Valley Health Board [2023] UKSC 26. The court was asked to decide on the extent to which a doctor is required, under a duty of care owed to a patient, to inform the patient about possible alternative treatmen

Elizabeth Rose and Craig Christie assess the Supreme Court’s decision in McCulloch v Forth Valley Health Board and the impact of the decision on one’s consent to medical treatment. The Supreme Court has finally answered the question on everyone’s lips since the landmark decision in

The English and Scottish courts have repeatedly confirmed that there are very limited grounds upon which an adjudicator's decision will not be enforced. The case of J&B Hopkins Ltd v A&V Building Solution Ltd [2023] EWHC 301 (TCC) provides a further illustration of the English court's approa

Colin Hulme details a recent Sheriff Appeal Court case on 'passing off'.  Passing off can happen when a company or person seeks to pass off their goods or services as being the same as or associated with a particular brand and seek to capitalise on that brand’s goodwill.

The Inner House of the Court of Session has issued an important decision in the appeal of Glasgow City council v X. It relates to the duty on local authorities to provide accommodation for homeless persons – that the duty to provide temporary accommodation is less onerous than the duty to prov

Housing minister Paul McLennan discusses the importance of the short term let licensing scheme in Scotland, looking at its benefits to tourism and local economies, and addressing potential safety and housing availability risks. A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of spending a weekend celebrating my

There is no doubt that the UK is one of the best locations for wind power in the world – and there’s been significant investment to capitalise on that energy advantage. At present it has over 11,000 wind turbines with a total installed capacity of 28 gigawatts (GW) and aspires to secure

Practitioners and medical professionals alike will be interested to note the recent judgment of the Sheriff Appeal Court in McCallum v Morrison, 2023 in which the pursuer’s appeal against the dismissal of a psychiatric injury claim following a dentist’s failure to follow adequate infecti

It is becoming increasingly common for businesses to face civil penalties of around £1m or more for breaching UK export control laws. Export control breaches are criminal offences, but the 1979 Customs and Excise Management Act allows HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) to "compound" offences and of

Angus MacLeod, a solicitor who specialises in the spirits industry, has spoken about the challenges currently being faced by the Scotch whisky sector after conducting an analysis of the industry’s production, sales, and global reputation, and discussed the strategies that can be employed to ov

Many urban readers will be unfamiliar with the idea of Muirburn and may indeed be shocked to learn that planned burning of heather and grass moorland occurs every year across rural Scotland, particularly in light of the recent spate of catastrophic wildfires. However, this practice has for centuries

Ronnice Clancy KC takes an expert look at the Rwanda case. There were 55 counsel instructed in the recent English Court of Appeal case in which the UK government’s Rwandan Asylum scheme was held, on a 2-1 split decision, to be unlawful. No wonder the court’s 161-page judgement is a chall

On Thursday 29 June 2023, the Crown Office’s request to extradite Richard Sharples for serious offences – alleged to have happened in Scotland in September 2021 – called before Mr Justice Paul McDermott in the High Court of Ireland, writes Thomas Ross KC. The application was oppose