Opinion

Douglas J. Cusine challenges Justice Secretary Humza Yousaf to break his silence on Scotland's malicious prosecution scandal. A month ago, I posed the question in relation to the Rangers malicious prosecution case: “Where has the Justice Secretary gone?” He has not even said whether ther

Dear Editor, How far we have fallen? It was with horror that I read in your newsletter (19th March 2021) of the proposed pilot for juryless rape cases.

Agricultural tenants could benefit from additional protections in the aftermath of the Holyrood elections, writes Hamish Lean. With the Scottish Parliamentary elections looming, Fergus Ewing has been sketching out changes that the SNP are considering to agricultural tenancy legislation if they remai

Thomas Mitchell details a personal injury case exemplifying that liability often comes in shades of grey.  As a personal injury lawyer, specialising in representing those injured in road traffic collisions, I read with interest the decision of Lady Wise in the recently reported decision of Wido

A snail in a bottle that was no storm in a teacup, Lord Kinclaven encourages readers to declare Donoghue v Stevenson the greatest entry in Session Cases as we celebrate 200 years of those venerable law reports. The legal significance of the decision in Donoghue v Stevenson, 1932 SC(HL) 31, is b

Simon Allison discusses employment law issues – but through the medium of Line of Duty. So, at the end of season five of the BBC’s Line of Duty, what have we learned?

Wealthflow's Dr George Callaghan explains why you should add the special sauce of compounding to your financial diet. Imagine the scene: it’s January the second and you have made a resolution to make healthier meals for yourself and the family. After a bit of internet searching, you find spina

Michael Reid, managing partner at Meston Reid & Co, gives his take on how changes to insolvency law could come into play for one key industry sector – the fishing industry. Whether it is the continuing impact of Covid-19 or the more recently reported effects of Brexit, media comments proli

This month marks a year since the UK went into its first national lockdown in response to Covid-19. The legal sector adapted quickly and embraced technology to continue to deliver legal services.  This adaptability has been particularly evident in alternative dispute resolution (ADR) – sp

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