By Emile Zitzke and Lesley-Anne Barnes Macfarlane  In Scotland and South Africa, when a child is negligently injured by an adult (often a motor vehicle driver in the case law), that adult might try to reduce the amount of damages payable to the child by arguing that the child was contributorily negligent in causing the injury. This legal position has implications for children’s rights and how the concept of “childhood” is constructed in law. The surprising reality is that old heads are sometimes being placed on very young shoulders, where the law expects children to behave like reasonable ..read more

19th March 2024, marked an enlightening and productive day for the Postgraduate Research (PGR) community at our Law School. From insightful lectures to engaging discussions, the PGR Away Day at the Home of an Art Lover was a testament to the intellectual vibrancy and collaborative spirit that defines our academic environment.  The day commenced with a captivating lecture by Professor Emilios Christodoulidis, who delved into the nuances of legal methods. His expertise illuminated various approaches and techniques, offering invaluable insights to sharpen our research methodologies.  Fo ..read more

A workshop on Domestic Abuse and Child Contact: The Interface between Criminal and Civil Proceedings was held at the Advanced Research Centre of the University of Glasgow on 19 January 2024. It brought together family law practitioners from across Scotland to discuss the issue of domestic abuse in the context of child contact cases. The workshop follows the publication in 2022 of a research report, which highlighted concerns and set out a series of recommendations that could be implemented to address them. The aim of this workshop was to allow legal practitioners to give their view on how they ..read more

By Dr Jay Gormley and Professor Julian V. Roberts The new causing death by driving offences guideline is the first offence-specific guidance issued by the Scottish Sentencing Council. It is certainly a distinctive moment for the UK jurisdiction, which has its own unique criminal justice system and legal and cultural history. But how unique is this guideline?  The common ground With this guideline, Scotland joins the large (and growing) number of countries that have introduced sentencing guidelines. All sentencing guidelines share common objectives: to promote consistency and increase tran ..read more

It is with much sadness that the death is announced of Esin Örücü, Professor Emerita of Comparative Law and Honorary Senior Research Fellow, University of Glasgow; and Professor Emerita of Comparative Law, Erasmus University Rotterdam. As the year drew to a close, Esin died peacefully on 31 December 2023 at her home in Glasgow.   Born in Istanbul, Turkey in 1940, Esin attended the English High School for Girls and the American College for Girls, before going on to study law at the University of Istanbul. She graduated from the Faculty of Law, first in her class, in 1965, proceeding t ..read more

By Flora Vern 3 November 2023 In September, I had the chance to take part in a workshop on the Kenyan handling of community lands, especially insofar as they are used by pastoralist and nomadic communities across the country. The workshop was held in Nairobi by non-governmental organisation IMPACT Trust Kenya, which supports indigenous peoples. Kenya is home to numerous indigenous communities of pastoralists, small farmers, hunter-gatherers and fishers, who are considered indigenous insofar as they were particularly despoiled during the colonial period and lost most of their customary lan ..read more

By Adam Reilly  16 October 2023  During my period of research leave, I had the opportunity to spend time at the Peter A Allard School of Law at the University of British Columbia, as part of their visiting scholars' programme. I was very kindly hosted by Dr Samuel Beswick, who provided me with a thoroughly welcoming, and generous, introduction to the School.   Spending time in another jurisdiction is a wonderful opportunity; you really gain a strong sense of contributing to a single, collective endeavour alongside scholars working in another Common Law jurisdiction. Indeed, I be ..read more

Last week, the Scottish Government published its Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill, the most controversial part of which is a proposal to pilot single judge trials in rape and attempted rape cases. The Scottish Government has justified this proposal, which would implement a recommendation by the 2021 Dorrian Review, by reference to a “compelling body of evidence” which “suggests that the existence of rape myths has an influence on decision-making by juries in these cases” (para 548 of the Policy Memorandum accompanying the Bill). Some of this evidence comes from what the Go ..read more

By Abbie Stirrat, Honours student at the School of Law In February 2023, the Glasgow University School of Law joined forces with the Franco-British Lawyers Society (FBLS) and held a joint symposium entitled ‘Competition Law After Brexit: Divergence for Differentiation or Parallelism for Consensus’. The symposium was organised by Professor Maria Fletcher and Dr Magali Eben within the School of Law. The spearheads within FBLS were Ian Forrester KC, Lord Ericht and David Guild. As lecturer in competition law, Magali hosted the event. The University of Glasgow School of Law and the Franco-British ..read more

Today, the Scottish Government published its Victims, Witnesses and Justice Reform (Scotland) Bill. The Bill is without doubt one of the most significant pieces of criminal justice legislation in the history of the Scottish Parliament. It primarily addresses the prosecution of sexual offences (although some of its provisions have wider effect). Most of the Bill’s content stems from the recommendations of the Dorrian Review into Improving the Management of Sexual Offence Cases. This was set up to address two issues: evidence that sexual offence complainers are severely re-traumatised by their e ..read more