Absolvitor: Scots Law Online

Scotland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Kathleen Marshall, has announced that she will not seek reappointment when her term of office comes to an end next April.

The Scottish Parliament’s Corporate Body (SPCB) will recruit her successor.

Kathleen Marshall said how grateful she was for the help and support she’d received from many individuals, groups and particularly children and young people who had helped to shape her work and made it so rewarding:

“It has been a great privilege to be Scotland’s first Commissioner for Children and Young People.

“I hope I have made a difference to the lives of children, especially those whose rights were most under threat, such as asylum seekers, children with disabilities and those in care.

“However, I believe ten years would be too long to stay in the post. This seems the right time to step down as it is a natural break and the office is ready to consult on a new set of priorities.”

The Commissioner’s report on the age of leaving care showed that eight times more young people left care at 16 than at 18, despite law and policy advocating that they stay in for longer. It was clear that there was a strong culture that led people to identify 16 as the age for leaving care. Activities designed to shift this culture have included a parliamentary debate and distribution of thousands of leaflets, designed with the help of some of the young people affected.

Kathleen Marshall emphasised that her work was not yet finished:

“[T]he coming months will be dominated by the UN’s scrutiny of the UK’s record in implementing the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I was in Geneva in June to tell the UN how I saw the situation. I will be there again on 23rd September to watch the Government being questioned. And I will be working after that to ensure that the UN’s recommendations are monitored and translated into reality.”

The Scottish Ministers have decided (on 3rd September) not to call in an application by Go Ape! to build an adventure playground in Pollok Park and have sent it back to Glasgow City Council. The volume of objections is not technically allowable as a reason to review the planning decision – so campaigners are now at the stage of challenging the Council’s legal competence to grant a lease at all.

Campaigners argue that the Council had no legal right to approve in principle a lease for Go Ape! in Feb 2007 and the Councillors were misinformed at the Committee which did this.

A solicitor on behalf of Save Pollok Park wrote in April 2008 to the City Council, reminding them that the disposition of Pollok to the Council prohibits developments such as Go Ape! without the agreement of the National Trust for Scotland and the Maxwell family.

It has further been argued that Pollok falls within the definition of “Common Good” and that the Council has failed so far to place it on the Common Good register.

From the pages of Jonathan Mitchell QC:

The Murray Stable has now formed four special interest groups: employment, public law, commercial and insolvency, and family law. The Family Law Group is holding a public launch on 22 September at the Mackenzie Building, which is behind the Fringe Office at 172 High Street, EH1 1QX.

The event has been designed in the form of a debate with the following topic:

“Scots Law has no effective means of dealing with mothers who will not allow contact.”

The Motion (taking its format from a four-speech Appeal in the Court of Session) will be argued by Janys Scott QC and Ross Macfarlane, Advocate and will be defended by Jonathan Mitchell QC and Kirsty Malcolm, Advocate. Each advocate will speak for less than ten minutes and the event will be chaired by noted child psychologist and FLaG member Professor James Furnell.

This will be a lively event with lots of scope for audience participation and discussion. The event qualifies for one hour of CPD and gives you the chance to meet informally with members of the Group and its clerking support. It will take place on Monday 22nd September 2008 at 5.30pm in the Mackenzie Building, Old Assembly Close, 172 High Street, Edinburgh EH1 1QX.

The programme is:

• 5.30 Registration: tea and coffee
• 6.00 Introduction by Professor James Furnell
• 6.10 Debate, followed by questions from the audience and plenary discussion
• 7.00 A Brief Word on Clerking: Iain Murray, Murray Stable Practice Manager
• 7.10 Wine and light refreshments

Places are limited and anyone wishing to attend should contact the Murray Stable, preferably by email.

As reported by Techno Llama among many, many others, Google’s new browser “Chrome” had a few teething problems, with initial versions of the Terms of Use claiming the rights to “any Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.” What? Everything?

Panic over! Google say this was just an admin error and have replace the offending item with the inoffensive “You retain copyright and any other rights that you already hold in Content that you submit, post or display on or through the Services.”

Much better. That’ll teach you to read the small print, though!

In an outstanding example of joined-up government (or, depending on your view, hypocrisy and stupidity), Aberdeen City Council are calling on the Scottish Government to allow them to pass local laws to criminalise begging on the streets.

This, just months after the Council cut £900,000 of funding from the Cyrenians, a homeless charity, forcing the closure of several shelters for the homeless.

The picture is Bartolomé Esteban Murillo’s “Beggar Boys Eating Grapes and Melon”

The Scottish Government has announced its legislative programme for the coming year. Here it is in full:

• EDUCATION (ADDITIONAL SUPPORT FOR LEARNING) (AMENDMENT) (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• ARBITRATION (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• BUDGET (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• CHILDREN’S HEARINGS (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• SCOTTISH CLIMATE CHANGE BILL;
• COUNCIL TAX ABOLITION (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• CRIMINAL JUSTICE AND LICENSING (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• FLOOD RISK MANAGEMENT (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• HEALTH (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• LEGISLATIVE REFORM (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• LEGAL PROFESSION (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• PUBLIC SERVICES REFORM (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• SCOTTISH MARINE BILL;
• SAFEGUARDING RURAL SCHOOLS (SCOTLAND) BILL;
• SCOTTISH CLIMATE CHANGE BILL; and
• SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS BILL.

And the analysis? Well a grand total of 12 “(Scotland)” Bills to only 4 “Scottish” Bills. A clear majority for the brackets. I just hope that in their enthusiasm to abolish Council Tax, the Parliament forgets to enact an alternative!

You may already have noticed, but there have been a few changes to the Legal Links section of the website, in particular, some tweaks to the Courts & Case Law page and a new(ish) Tribunals page.

The Sheriff Officers and Messengers-at-Arms page has also been updated. Do have a look and let me know what you think. All feedback much appreciated.

I came across this on another blog and really liked the idea.

IRREPRESSIBLE.INFO is an Amnesty International campaign, which highlights Internet censorship across the globe.

From the site:

“Chat rooms monitored. Blogs deleted. Websites blocked. Search engines restricted. People imprisoned for simply posting and sharing information.

“The Internet is a new frontier in the struggle for human rights. Governments – with the help of some of the biggest IT companies in the world – are cracking down on freedom of expression.”

As you may have noticed at the foot of the right hand column, the site allows you to post a widget on your own website, which displays a random selection of snippets from websites and blogs which have been censored somewhere. The campaign site invites you to “undermine unwarranted censorship by publishing censored material from our database directly onto your site“. Count me in!

You’ll have to excuse me while I go and lie down for a bit … I suddenly feel quite … seditious (and I think I like it).

The 83 year old protester who was stopped and searched under the Terrorism Act for wearing an anti-Blair t-shirt has had his complaint against police upheld.

John Catt was searched by police at the Labour Party Conference in 2005 in Brighton armed with nothing more dangerous than a sketch pad and felt tip pens.

Three years later, the Independent Police Complaints Commission has upheld his complaint that Sussex Police acted unlawfully by using the Terrorism Act to stop him.