by David Cabrelli, Professor of Labour Law, University of Edinburgh Should the law lend legal validity to a clause in a contract that empowers one of the parties to unilaterally vary its terms? And should there be any difference in the applicable rule if the contracting party who has the power to vary is in a superior bargaining position, such as an employer in an employment contract? These are the two principal questions that this post will consider. In the view of John Stuart Mill, everyone should have the right to consent (or not to consent) to change their mind in the future and to have th ..read more

by David Fox, Professor of Common Law, University of Edinburgh The England and Wales Law Commission has recently published its final report on Digital Assets (Digital assets – Law Commission).[1]  The report comes after an exhaustive study of the way that existing principles of private law in England and Wales would apply to this emerging class of assets.  It is of great significance since digital assets are fast becoming mainstream vehicles for carrying out financial transactions as conventional forms of financial securities are adapted to work on blockchain technology.  The re ..read more

by Susanna Macdonald-Mulvihill, Early Career Fellow, Edinburgh Law School A woman walks into a bar. Her name is Janet. Janet tells the bartender, Luca, that she would like a dram for herself and to buy a drink for all the other customers currently in the pub. Luca duly pours the whisky and rings up the total for all the drinks. Janet pays, drinks her whisky, and leaves. Luca pours the drinks Janet has bought for the other customers and distributes them to the relevant people, who happily accept and enjoy their beverages. Kevin, one of the regular customers, was in the toilets when Janet came ..read more

by Professor Hector MacQueen, Emeritus Professor of Private Law, Edinburgh Law School* Back in 2012 I was honoured to be asked to deliver that year’s James Wood Memorial Lecture in Glasgow University Law School. My title was “Private Law, National Identity and the Case of Scotland”. But I thought that before I started on the substance, I should say a few words about James Wood. No previous lecturer appeared to have done so and before the invitation I did not know anything about him. The life and remarkable business career of James Wood of Wallhouse in Torphichen, West Lothian are however well ..read more

by León Carmona Fontaine, PhD Student at Edinburgh Law School* If there was a Scottish case from the 1620s in which a Scottish court had decided that there was a sham trust, it would be surprising and significant for both historical and comparative reasons. For a start, Scots lawyers usually consider that a distinct institution known as a trust appeared in Scotland in the late 17th century, and more decisively in the 18th century.[1] Second, sham trusts are usually seen as a recent English legal development. The term ‘sham’ gained a defined legal meaning in England between the late 19th centur ..read more

by Daniel J. Carr, Senior Lecturer in Private Law, Edinburgh Law School A.  INTRODUCTION Change is coming to trusts law in Scotland. November 2022 saw the introduction of the Trusts and Succession (Bill) (“the Bill”) in the Scottish Parliament, and on 15th September 2023 the Delegated Powers and Reform Committee (“the Committee”) published its broadly supportive Stage 1 Report on the Trusts and Succession (Scotland) Bill (“the S1 Report”). The Parliament is scheduled to hold the Stage 1 Debate on the Bill on 28th September 2023. It is, therefore, a good time to build upon several of the C ..read more

By Christopher K. Odinet, Josephine R. Witte Professor of Law, University of Iowa; MacCormick Fellow (2023), University of Edinburgh. For years now, the law around digital asset transactions has been very much up for debate, with some jurisdictions being more active than others in setting the legal parameters around these novel arrangements.  For example, the Singapore International Commercial Court ruled in B2C2 Ltd v Quoine Pte Ltd (2019)[1] that crypto assets can be viewed as property, similar to the English court’s decision in AA v. Persons Unknown involving Bitcoin[2] and the New Zea ..read more

By Fransiska Ari Indrawati, PhD Candidate, Edinburgh Law School* Throughout most of history, money as a tool of payment has taken the form of tangible objects such as coins and banknotes. However, the rapid development of digital technology has changed the payment landscape. In the UK, for example, most of the liquid funds used in payments nowadays consist of intangible bank deposits. So far, these are all privately-created forms of money rather than state-issued legal tender. However, this may be about to change. Many central banks are seeking to expand the supply of state-issued intangible m ..read more

by Katy Macfarlane, Senior Lecturer in Child and Family Law, University of Edinburgh. In Part 1 of this blog, I examined the work of UNICEF and the UNFPA to end the practice of child marriage by 2030. What has this got to do with Scotland? The majority of the consequences of child marriage that are highlighted in Part 1 do not apply in Scotland – do they? We live in a progressive, child-focussed, child-centred society. We care about children and child protection – don’t we? In Scotland, the average age of the parties to a marriage is mid-30s. The average age that a woman in Scotland gives birt ..read more

by Katy Macfarlane, Senior Lecturer in Child and Family Law, University of Edinburgh. The minimum age at which a person can marry in Scotland is 16. This is set out in section 1 of the Marriage (Scotland) Act 1977. The consent of a parent is not required.[1] Is a change to the minimum age in the pipeline? There is growing support in Scotland to increase the minimum age for marriage and civil partnership to age 18. This would bring Scots law in line with the law in England and Wales where the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Minimum Age) Act 2022 came into force in February 2023.[2] It would als ..read more