Opinion

Benjamin Bestgen turns his eye to the legalities of torture this week. See last week's jurisprudential primer here. Torture is a disturbingly common feature in our entertainment. In medieval or horror stories but also war and crime movies, books or TV series, the bad guys routinely torture innocents

Sibel Top, a PhD fellow of the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, considers whether EU extradition laws have passed the "Catalan test". On 8 March 2021, the European Parliament voted to lift the immunity of Catalan MEPs, Puigdemont, Comin and Ponsati. Although this

It is usually (but not always) a truism in the legal profession that what happens in London will eventually happen in Edinburgh. The most recent example of this is in relation to the way in which lawyers north of the border are entitled to charge for their work. For some time now, English lawyers ha

Justice must be done and seen to be done – but whose justice? That is the uncomfortable question Benjamin Bestgen examines this week. See his last jurisprudential primer here. It’s said that the creation of laws sometimes resembles sausage-making: you need a strong stomach if you re

Early adopters of sustainable practices, including retrofit programmes, may be better placed to reap future benefits, writes Sheelagh Cooley. In the year that Glasgow hosts the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26), UK law firm Shoosmiths joined over 120 other UK businesses committing to

Harper Macleod successfully defended a client at the East London Employment Tribunal in an unfair dismissal claim brought by an ex-employee who was dismissed for gross misconduct for refusing to wear a mask on a supplier's site as part of Covid-19 health and safety rules. This has been reported as t

Mergers are often a topic that charity trustees would rather avoid. Yet it’s one that some in Scotland are now considering as they look to a future shaped by the legacy of Covid-19, writes Alastair Keatinge. As we close in on the first anniversary of Lockdown One, only now are we starting

Rodney White suggests that Westminster and Holyrood should "step up to the plate" and fund infrastructure specifically for housebuilding projects. "Build back infrastructure" is not as snappy or alliterative as the build-back-better mantra favoured by politicians who believe that post-Covid-19 there

The practice of diversifying investment portfolios is almost as old as investing itself.  Not placing all of your financial eggs in one basket is diversification in a nutshell. It makes perfect, logical sense: spreading your money over numerous equities or securities, spreads the risk. If certa

'Glasgow's Miles Better' was a 1980s campaign to promote the city of Glasgow as a tourist destination and as a location for industry and business. Back then fossil fuels were powering the country and releasing millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere every year. 'People Mak

Benjamin Bestgen considers the law around espionage in this week's jurisprudential primer. See last week's here. James Bond is a bad spy; a pathological character who’d probably score highly on most psychopathy tests: he is glib, manipulative, self-absorbed, lacking in empathy, unnecessarily v

Over the last few years you may have seen headlines telling you how much you would have made if you’d invested in Amazon, Apple, Microsoft etc. Companies like these have been coined ‘unicorns’; the term first used in 2013 by Aileen Lee (New York Times). A unicorn is a privately hel

Everyone's world was turned upside down in 2020, with unpredictable events throughout the year. The uncertainty has impacted on the work of personal injury lawyers. While the country has been in lockdown with fewer cars on the roads and many employees no longer attending at their places of work, you

As solicitors come to terms with the new guidance on price transparency which finally came into effect on 31 January 2021, there’s a certain unease about its impact on solicitor estate agents. You see, the guidance requires firms to publish their fees and other costs of carrying out estate age

Rosie Gollan contrasts the reforms north and south of the border that have followed Grenfell. Following the Grenfell Tower fire in 2017, the UK government has been reviewing and taking steps to reform building and fire safety regimes.