Bullet Point Updates
July 2013 – The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill “Spouses” – not what they were
The Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill (“the Bill”) was introduced to the Scottish Parliament last month. This Note looks at the main changes which the Bill contains by outlining the current position and then going on to look at some of the main things the...
June 2013 – This BPU is about rubbish…
The Waste (Scotland) Regulations 2012 as affecting businesses That title of this BPU echoes one of Lady Smith’s Opinions in a recent case in the Court of Session: North Lanarkshire Council v Scottish Ministers and Shore Energy. The actual words of the opening sentence...
May 2013 – An occupation of some kind
“...an occupation of some kind...” or Smoke gets in your eyes On the question of smoking (and more) we have come a long way since Lady Bracknell’s interrogation of Jack Worthing as a prospective husband for her daughter Gwendolyn: LADY BRACKNELL:...Do you...
April 2013 – Taxes Past, Taxes Present & Taxes Yet To Come
This month is the end of one tax year and the beginning of another. So it is apt that tax in some way or other should be the focus of this BPU. But (with a nod to Ebeneezer Scrooge’s three ghosts) we do not dwell here on taxes past or on taxes present - but on taxes...
March 2013 – Not Guillotines In Tandem But Execution In Counterpart
The phrase “execution in counterpart” might bring to mind “the worst excesses of the French revolution” (to borrow from Lady Bracknell in The Importance of being Earnest) as suggesting guillotines operating in gory tandem. But this Note touches on nothing gory. ...
February 2013 – Estate Agents & Fair Practices
Spring is (almost) in the air – traditionally the best time to move house. With Britain having lost its AAA credit rating and the housing market rather gloomy anyway it may hardly seem so. But life goes on - and so must the buying and selling of houses. Estate Agents...
January 2013 – Something On “Green Deals” – Nothing On Moral Imperatives
Towards the end of last year Alex Salmond said that oil-rich countries like Scotland have a moral obligation to invest in green energy: “It’s not just an economic opportunity, it’s a moral imperative that hydrocarbon countries lead the way in renewable energy...
December 2012 – Not A Scheme Of Merriment
Being the month of Christmas there is, even in legal circles, an inclination to merriment. But Dr Johnson has warned that “nothing is more hopeless than a scheme of merriment”. Taking heed of that warning this Bullet Point Update does not aspire (even) to read like a...
November 2012 – But Here There Are No Cows or Good News For Hedge-Trimmers?
Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall tells of two neighbours’ annual and painstaking task of mending the wall between their orchard properties. “Good fences make good neighbours” intones one of them - as his father did before him. The other questions that incantation...
October 2012 – The Scottish Parliament and When Law Is Not Law
This month saw the “Edinburgh Agreement” signed by Alex Salmond and David Cameron paving the way for the referendum on an independent Scotland. This Note does not pursue any of the interesting political aspects of that. But the signing of the agreement prompts a brief...
September 2012 – R.I.P. Ultra-Long Leases
LONG LEASES (SCOTLAND) ACT 2012 Generally, one tends to think of leases as having a term of six months or perhaps a year or two for residential leases; five or fifteen years for modern agricultural leases; and, say, 25 years for commercial leases. Nevertheless,...
August 2012 – Costs Of Evictions By Landlords
Usually residential tenancies work well. But sometimes they don’t. When they don’t the landlord may end up seeking to remove (in this Note “evict”) the tenant from the property. That involves a number of hoops which must be jumped through; and jumped through in the...
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