Search Results for: Scotland

The parliament of Scotland introduced a bill on Friday to modernize hate crimes laws, including a section that would abolish the crime of blasphemy. The purpose of the proposed legislation is “to modernise, consolidate and extend existing hate crime law,” updating the list of protected characteristics, including for the first time adding age to the [...]

The UN climate change conference (COP) that was set to take place in Glasgow, Scotland, in November has been postponed to 2021. The decision was announced in a press release on Wednesday night by the COP Bureau of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, along with the UK and its Italian partners. “In light [...]

The Scottish parliament approved a bill on Tuesday making sanitary products free to all women. The bill passed through the first stage of Scotland’s lawmaking process almost unanimously, with no opposition and only one abstention. Once enacted, the law would make women’s sanitary products freely available at designated public places. The bill, known as The [...]

Scotland’s Court of Sessions, its highest civil court, ruled Wednesday to legalize lock-change evictions against failed asylum seekers. In this case, a failed asylum seeker tenant sued a landlord that evicted the asylum seeker by changing the locks on the rental unit without a court order. The landlord served the asylum seeker an eviction notice after [...]

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and leaders of the European Union reached a tentative agreement on Thursday for the withdrawal of the United Kingdom from the EU. The final agreement is similar to the deal that Johnson proposed earlier in October. While the deal is substantially similar for England, Scotland, and Wales as former Prime [...]

The Scottish Parliament on Thursday passed the Children Equal Protection from Assault bill, making it the first country in the UK to criminalize physical punishment of children. This bill removes the defense of reasonable chastisement, which is currently used on occasions when a parent assaults their child. The removal of the defense, however, does not [...]

The UK Supreme Court held on Tuesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s prorogation of Parliament in early September was unlawful. Johnson moved to prorogue Parliament in early September, stating that the current term was one of the longest in recent history and that Parliament should be temporarily dismissed so that the government could develop a [...]

The UK Supreme Court on Tuesday heard two simultaneous appeals over whether Prime Minister Boris Johnson broke the law by suspending Parliament for five weeks in the run-up to the Brexit deadline, currently scheduled for October 31. Lord Pannick QC represented anti-Brexit campaigner Gina Miller, appealing from an English High Court ruling that Johnson’s decision [...]

Courts in England and Northern Ireland have rejected challenges to Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s decision to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament, both holding that the act was a political matter in which the courts could not intervene. An English court released a full judgment on Wednesday for a decision rendered last week, stating that reviewing the [...]

Scotland’s Inner House of the Court of Session held Wednesday that Prime Minister Boris Johnson‘s decision to prorogue, or suspend, Parliament was unlawful. Prorogation involves the suspension of Parliament without dissolving the body, and it must be approved by Her Majesty The Queen Elizabeth II. Johnson defended the move as a method to develop a [...]