Scotland

Recent Articles

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  18/04/2024

  United Kingdom

  Transparency: ECCTA 2023 and Register of Overseas Entities update

  The Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Act 2023 (ECCTA), which is aimed at tackling economic crime and preventing abuse of corporate structures in the UK, will not only fundamentally reform the administrative requirements for UK companies, limited liability partnerships and limited partnerships generally, but will also expand the requirements of the Register of Overseas Entities (ROE) regime for overseas entities holding or acquiring UK real estate.  The ROE is a register at Companies House which came into effect on 1 August 2022. Here are some FAQs providing information about...

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  18/04/2024

  International

  Transforming the Legal Landscape? The Impact of LLMs

  Large Language Models (LLMs) are a branch of artificial intelligence (AI) that can generate human-like text based on deep learning techniques. LLMs are trained on massive amounts of textual data, such as books, articles, and websites, and learn to recognise patterns, structures, and relationships within the data. By doing so, they develop the ability to produce text on various topics. The presence of LLMs in the legal sector is increasing and, with this, the ability of lawyers to understand and use LLMs in providing quality advice to their clients is becoming more important. CMS have a dedicated...

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  17/04/2024

  Scotland

  Bioenergy in Scotland – Scottish Government’s Draft Policy Statement focusses on sustainability and resilience

  IntroductionThe Scottish Government (“SG”) has launched a consultation on its draft Bioenergy Policy (the “SG Bioenergy Policy”), with responses to be submitted by 12th June 2024. This article provides a brief overview of the SG Bioenergy Policy’s main features and how it compares with its counterpart, the “Biomass Policy Statement” which was published by the UK Government in November 2021, subsequently laying the foundation for the Biomass Strategy released in 2023.BackgroundThe draft SG Bioenergy Policy sets out the role SG envisages bioenergy playing...

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  17/04/2024

  Europe

  CMS data protection update (04/2024)

  I. The latest from the data protection authorities and current topics1. EDPB: Launch of coordinated enforcement on the right of accessThe European Data Protection Board (EDPB) selected the right of access under Article 15 GDPR as the focus of the third coordinated enforcement action of the data protection authorities. Coordinated enforcement has now begun and aims to help assess how the right of access is implemented in practice and to what extent adjustments or clarifications are needed in the EDPB's Guidelines on this topic. Last year’s results of the coordinated enforcement action on the...

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  17/04/2024

  United Kingdom

  APP fraud – Quincecare duty claims against banks replaced by new “retrieval duty” claims

  The recent decision in CCP Graduate School Ltd v National Westminster Bank plc and another [2024] EWHC 581 (KB), demonstrates how Claimants are repositioning claims against banks arising from authorised push payment (APP) fraud from breach of Quincecare duty claims to so-called “retrieval duty” claims.To date, the Courts have been reluctant to strike out such claims on a summary basis allowing them to proceed to trial. It is therefore likely that claimants will continue to frame claims against banks on this basis until the Courts determine the substantive merits of such claims.APP fraud...

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  16/04/2024

  United Kingdom

  To decide or not to decide: burden of proof findings and subsequent adjudications

  A recent decision of the Scottish Court of Session has considered whether the failure to prove a delay damages claim in one adjudication prevented the claimant from renewing the claim in a subsequent adjudication. In finding that the claim could not be re-adjudicated, the Court sought to distinguish a previous TCC decision in England where a failure of proof did not prevent a subsequent adjudication on the same claim. The Court’s comments suggest that adjudicators might have the ability to avoid deciding a claim where burden of proof issues exist, effectively reserving the claim for a subsequent...

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