Scottish Human Rights Law Group

 
The Inner House held in the context of an appeal against a sheriff’s decision finding grounds for referral to a children’s hearing established for their children, that to found a successful appeal, an irregularity in the conduct of the case had to be damaging to the justice of the proceedings.  
 
The court accepted that in view of the importance of …

 
 The Convention compatibility of the procedure in children’s hearings in Scotland was considered by the Inner House which found that the hearings did not constitute “criminal proceedings” for the purposes of either Scots law or European Human Rights law, and therefore did not attract the specific guarantees set out in Articles 6(2) and 6(3).   

 
Article 5(4) – the right to court proceedings to challenge the lawfulness of detention
 
The Inner House held that lack of legal representation at children’s hearing when warrant authorising detention in secure accommodation issued was not per se in breach of the child’s Convention rights on that basis that her right under Article 5(4)were satisfied by the possibility of appealing against …

The principle allowing a child to bring a civil suit for injuries sustained in the womb[1] cannot be extended to give a father the right to prevent termination of a pregnancy through abortion.  The court held that an unborn foetus does not have rights which can be vindicated.

In Crossan v South Lanarkshire Council [1] a father acting in his capacity as the legal representative of his thirteen year old son who suffered from Down’s Syndrome sought reduction of a decision by his local authority to refuse to pay the child’s fees in respect of after and out of school care together with a declarator that the local …