Opinion

Disruption can bring opportunities, and those businesses which have a mindset of accepting opportunities thrown up from the unwelcome disruption caused by Covid-19 will survive and thrive, while new businesses will emerge to capitalise on these opportunities. Initially, the pandemic led to a tempora

There are advantages to having a bit of age on you when you’re a family lawyer – quite apart from the fact that you are less likely to be trying to home school your own children. If you are 40 plus you will remember family law pre-Brussels II, which is going to be useful in this post-Bre

According to a recent survey, post-Brexit Britain is considered a prime real estate proposition by investors, developers and asset managers from across Europe, China and the US. Notably, it ranked the UK highest for future residential property investment. The UK property sector reportedly attracts i

Martin Devine looks at the state of the commercial property sector during the pandemic. It has been a tumultuous year for the commercial property sector with Covid-19 disrupting investors’ plans and, at least in the short term, bringing transactional activity to a shuddering halt.

Some of the more controversial aspects of the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2016 are to be brought into force by February 28, writes Hamish Lean. These are the long-awaited rules applying to a secure agricultural tenant’s right to relinquish their interest in the tenancy in return for compensatio

Benjamin Bestgen this week contrasts the letter of the law with its spirit. See his last jurisprudential primer here.  As a species, humans value play, sports and games. For example, probably all of us know somebody who enjoys cardgames, boardgames, videogames or various kinds of table-top game

This week Benjamin Bestgen looks at the legalities surrounding certain extracurricular activities. See last week's here. Every law student in the UK has probably heard of R v Brown [1993] UKHL 19 during their studies. The case concerned a group of men who had occasionally gathered for consensual, bu

Dr Thomas Muinzer of Aberdeen University writes about a complaint lodged with the European Commission over the climate emergency following the UK government's failure to respond to a request for the expansion of "greenhouse gas" in law. It has been outlined recently in SLN that the Scottish Climate

As the Financial Conduct Authority investigation into the 2018 Carillion case concludes with the watchdog intending to take further action against its directors, Ramsay Hall details how the case is a salutary lesson for the industry. Interaction with health, safety and environmental regulators

Caroline Gillespie considers proposed additional powers to tackle domestic abuse and recent statistics on charges for, and prosecution of, domestic abuse. Scotland’s police, courts and social landlords may soon be given additional powers to protect victims of domestic abuse. The Domestic Abuse

Gareth Hale and Louise McDaid write about Briggs of Burton Plc v Doosan Babcock Limited, in which they acted for the defender. Rectification is a remedy in Scots law that enables a document which does not accurately reflect the common intention of the parties to be altered retrospectively by th

"If a man put out the eye of another man, his eye shall be put out" and if he breaks another's bone, his shall be broken. So states Hammurabi's Code, an ancient exemplar of the precept of lex talionis. Why is revenge so compelling? Benjamin Bestgen explains all. See his last jurisprudential primer h

Richard Douglas-Home looks at proposed changes to the capital gains tax regime. The Office of Tax Simplification (OTS) is an independent office of the Treasury, set up in 2010 to provide advice to the government on simplifying the UK tax system. It will produce reports either on its own initiative o

Graeme Di Rollo demystifies copyright enforcement. Keeping track of who is using your copyright-protected content online can be a daunting task.

Dr Kath Murray, Lucy Hunter Blackburn and Lisa Mackenzie of MurrayBlackburnMackenzie comment on proposed changes to a bill approaching stage three at Holyrood. This week an important bill will reach its final stage in the Scottish Parliament. The Forensic Medical Services (Victims of Sexual Offences