Scotland

Scotland’s Supreme Courts

This website is part of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals site and provides information on Scotland’s two supreme courts - the High Court of Justiciary (Scotland’s supreme criminal court) and the Court of Session (Scotland’s supreme civil court). There is background information on the structure of the courts, along with details of judges, rules and practice directions, and daily court lists. There is also information on the different departments within the courts, including the Petition Department, Keeper’s Office and Justiciary Office.

Scottish Sentencing Council

Official website of the Scottish Sentencing Council, an independent advisory body which prepares sentencing guidelines for the courts in Scotland. Information given on the site includes guidance on sentencing in Scotland and definitions of different types of sentence, such as admonition and community payback orders. The Council also conducts and publishes research on sentencing, which is available on the site along with other publications - sentencing guidelines, annual reports, communications, consultations and teaching resources.

Scottish Courts and Tribunals: Judgments

This page of the Scottish Courts and Tribunals website provides access to judgements of the Scottish courts. The fifty most recent judgements from the following courts can be browsed in full: High Court, Court of Session, Fatal Accident Inquiries, Sheriff Court, Sheriff Appeal Courts (Criminal and Civil) and the Scotland Personal Injury Court. Judgements can also be searched by keyword or using an advanced search option.

Legal Services Agency

Website of the Legal Services Agency (LSA) a Law Centre and Charity based in Scotland. The organisation provides legal advice and representation for disadvantaged people focusing on issues such as mental illness, poverty, debt, homelessness, women and young people. There is information on the law in Scotland relating to these topics and a number of publications that are free to download from the site. Details are also given of seminars and legal education events held at the LSA.

UK Web Archive

The UK Web Archive aims to give permanent online access to key UK websites for future generations by preserving ‘snapshots’ of websites over time. The project is jointly provided by the British Library in partnership with the National Library of Wales, JISC and the Wellcome Library. It is possible to search the archive or to browse by category. The category titled ‘Government, Law and Politics’ includes the sub-categories ‘Law and Legal System’ and ‘Crime, Criminology, Police and Prisons.’

Society of Solicitor Advocates

The Society of Solicitor Advocates represents the interests of solicitor advocates in Scotland. The website contains information for solicitors on how to become a solicitor advocate, as well as information for other solicitors and members of the public about how to instruct a solicitor advocate. The library section of the website contains documents that can be downloaded, including consultation responses, newsletters and application forms.

18th Century Law Books

Collection of around 600 digitised eighteenth century treatises and pamphlets on English and Scottish law, part of the Hathi Trust Digital Library. The material can be browsed by subject, author, date, place of publication and other criteria, or searched by key word. The Hathi Trust is a partnership of research institutions and libraries working to establish a repository to archive and share their digitised collections.

Employment tribunal decisions

Database of recent employment tribunal decisions from England, Wales and Scotland. The database was launched in April 2017 and is on the UK Government website. Tribunal judgments can be searched by key word and filtered by date, jurisdiction and/or subject (the list of subjects is called ‘Jurisdiction code’). Email alerts are available regarding new or updated decisions.

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