Month: March 2002

?

 

The Constitutional Reform Bill received its Second Reading in the House of Lords on 8 March.  The House voted by 216-183 to send the Bill for scrutiny in a special select committee, which may mean that the Bill cannot pass in the current Parliamentary session.  The Second Reading debate can be read at http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld199900/ldhansrd/pdvn/lds04/text/40308-03.htm#40308-03_head2.  The Bill can be read at http://www.parliament.the-stationery-office.co.uk/pa/ld200304/ldbills/030/2004030.htm.  On 9 March the Justice 2 Committee of the Scottish Parliament took evidence from the Lord President on the subject of the Supreme Court, in considering the Sewel motion to allow the Constitutional Reform Bill to proceed at Westminster insofar as it deals with the devolved area of the Scottish legal system.  Proceedings are recorded at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/justice2/index.htm.  Further evidence will be taken on 16 March.

 

The House of Lords has unanimously upheld the judgement of the Extra Division of the Court of Session, and distinguished the case of Sharp v Thomson 1997 SC (HL) 66 in Burnett’s Tr v Grainger [2004] UKHL 8, issued 4 March 2004.  The Scots law of property hangs on! (See Nos 129, 173, 281.)

 

The English High Court has held that a defamation action brought by the Celtic footballer Neil Lennon against the Glasgow-based tabloid newspaper The Daily Record can go ahead in England.  The case concerns allegations made by the newspaper about Lennon’s conduct while participating in a team night out in Newcastle at Christmas 2002. (2 March 2004).