At the end of May 2016 the Scottish Government published the report produced by the independent panel set up to review the Scottish planning system.  What it produced was an ambitious vision of how the planning system ought to work, with 48 recommendations covering 6 key areas.    The report recommends a shift in how the system works so as to create stronger and better integrated strategic plans at a higher level, with local development plans being focussed on identifying and implementing specific development opportunities.  This could create a risk of distancing communities from the system, but is balanced out by promoting public involvement at an early stage in the local development plan process.  This article considers the report’s recommendations and the resulting potential for change.

In this article, Andrew Bowen QC looks at constructive notice and proprietary rights through the case of Credit Agricole Corp and Investment Bank v Papadimitriou [2015] 1 W.L.R. 4265.

In this case, the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in a Gibraltese appeal, clarified the test of constructive notice which the bona fide purchaser must satisfy to be “without notice”, emphasising the importance for banks of establishing the commercial purpose of a transaction rather than just the source of the funds.

This article was first published in Greens Business Law Bulletin, Issue 140 (published February 2016) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, the Law Publishers.

In this article, Roddy Macleod considers recent decisions involving contentious executries and succession to heritable property.  He looks at the Outer House decision in Hill v Hill on the difficulties faced by a defender, as executor, in advancing positive defences against a disputed transfer of heritable property, post death, and explains the position of a defender who wishes to counterclaim.

This article was first published in Scots Law Times (S.L.T. 2016, 13, 61-63) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, the Law Publishers.

In this article, David Small and Roddy Macleod look at the Inner House ruling in Murray Group Holdings Ltd v Revenue and Customs Commissioners, and earlier litigation between the parties, on whether employee remuneration trusts operated by a football club for its players generated taxable earnings subject to income tax and national insurance contributions. The authors discuss the Inner House's approach to HMRC's "redirection of earnings" argument, including its views on the players' side letters.

This article was first published in British Tax Review (B.T.R. 2016, 1, 27-38) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, The Law Publishers.

In this article, Roddy MacLeod assesses the Outer House judgment in Khosprowpour v MacKay on the binding effect of an oral agreement that the pursuer's provision of financial assistance to his former mother-in-law to purchase her local authority flat under right to buy rules was conditional on her bequeathing it to him on her death.

This article was first published in Juridical Review (Jur. Rev. 2016, 1, 19-26) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, the Law Publishers.

In this article, Roddy MacLeod discusses, with reference to salient case law, the differing approaches to the appointment of an executor dative and a guardian, and the reasons behind such differences.

This article was first published in Scots Law Times (S.L.T. 2015, 24, 103-105) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, the Law Publishers.

In this article, Roddy MacLeod discusses the potential problems arising when a person holding a power of attorney also performs the role of executor after the grantor's death. He compares the duties held by attorneys and executors towards a testamentary beneficiary and considers the remedies available under Scottish law to a beneficiary, both before and after the grantor's death, for an attorney's breach of duty.

This article was first published in Juridical Review (Jur. Rev. 2014, 4, 281-286) and is reproduced here with the kind permission of W. Green, the Law Publishers.