Scottish Law Commission

The Scottish Law Commission today has published a discussion paper on updating the mental element in homicide. The crimes of murder and culpable homicide are generally regarded as the most serious of all crimes in Scots law, in terms of gravity and impact on victims and their families.

Malcolm McMillan, chief executive of the Scottish Law Commission, is to retire at the end of June. Mr McMillan has been chief executive since 2008, ably supporting commission chairs Lord Drummond Young (2008), Lady Clark (2012), Lord Pentland (2014), and Lady Paton (2019 to date), commissioners and

The Scottish Law Commission will publish delayed discussion papers on personal injury payouts and homicide this year following the disruption of the Covid-19 pandemic. Writing in the foreword to its annual report for 2020, chairperson Lady Paton said the Commission's publications over the course of

The Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission of England and Wales have today announced landmark proposals that will seek to ensure the safety of self-driving vehicles via a comprehensive new legal framework. Hailed as “leading the way on the regulation of this technology” by transp

David Bartos and Dr Gillian Black have been appointed commissioners of the Scottish Law Commission. Mr Bartos brings a wealth of practical experience in commercial property litigation covering a wide breadth of landlord and tenant disputes together with a deep knowledge of property and contract law.

Kate Dowdalls QC discusses the Scottish Law Commission's Cohabitation Discussion Paper in a new video. The commission welcomes responses to the paper.

Reforms that aim to simplify, clarify and improve electoral law have today been published by the Scottish Law Commission and the Law Commission of England and Wales. Electoral law in the UK is currently spread across 25 major statutes. It has become increasingly complex and fragmented

The Scottish Law Commission has published a discussion paper reviewing cohabitation law in Scotland. While the Family Law (Scotland) Act 2006 gives cohabitants statutory rights where none previously existed, there have been changes in society and in attitudes to relationships and families in Scotlan

The Scottish Law Commission’s Annual Report 2019 outlines progress on the commission’s law reform work during 2019. The report explains the progress made on implementation of the commission’s recommendations, outlines the commission’s work to promote law reform and contains a

Dr Frankie McCarthy has been appointed a Scottish law commissioner. Dr McCarthy is a senior lecturer in private law at the University of Glasgow, where she has taught since 2007. Her teaching and research interests are in property law and family law and she has published widely in relation to b

Landmark legislation which provided a legal basis for real burdens following the abolition of feudal tenure is too difficult to apply in practice and should be reformed, the Scottish Law Commission has said. The legal reform body has published a new report recommending the replacement of section 53

The Scottish government's failure to take steps towards reforming trusts and other areas of law has been criticised by a judge. In his last report as chairman of the Scottish Law Commission, Lord Pentland said that "the position in respect of trust law is concerning".

A planned new piece of Scottish land law could be made more user-friendly, the Faculty of Advocates has suggested. The Scottish Law Commission (SLC) has produced a draft bill following a consultation last year on improving the much-criticised Section 53 of the Title Conditions (Scotland) Act 2003.