Welcome to CjScotland

"A sense of an accessible Scottish debate being developed at last, and many different interests being tied together."

Read more about what this web site is trying to do and how it is run here.

Latest headlines

1. Strathclyde Police report on results of domestic abuse campaign: violence reductions noted
2. Criminal Proceedings in Scottish Courts statistics 2008–09 published
3. Council of Europe critical of UK prisoner vote implementation delays: latest

For more stories follow this link to CJ in the News.

Last week in the Scottish Parliament

Catch up with our Parliamentary review for the 1st to 5th March 2010.

• New: "Handy guide to criminal justice in the Scottish Parliament September 2008 - July 2009".

New

• 17.12.09. Maggie Mellon responds to the proposed changes to Children’s Hearings by suggesting that although the Scottish Government appears to be listening to criticism of the draft Children’s Hearings Bill, there is a risk that reforms will be fudged and an opportunity to right wrongs and for ‘joined up thinking’ on children and young people in trouble, missed. See On getting a good hearing: reform and justice for children(December 2009)

• 17.12.09. In a continuation of their fascinating exchange, Antony Duff has contributed a short response to Lindsay Farmer in which he argues that the exercise of mercy in circumstances such as the Megrahi case is in conflict with justice and that this sort of decision may be distinguished from the exercise of discretion in sentencing, or where the rigour of the criminal law must be tempered to be just. See Mercy and Criminal Justice: A Response to Lindsay Farmer (December 2009)

• 16.11.09 Professor Lindsay Farmer replies to Antony Duff’s article (see below) in Mercy and Justice . He does not accept Duff’s conclusion that the release was wrong. .

• 16.9.09 Professor Antony Duff writes on Justice, Mercy and Punishment . In this specially commissioned piece the renowned legal philosopher Professor Antony Duff considers the question of mercy and criminal justice, and applies it to the decision made by the Justice Secretary to release Al-Megrahi.

• 9.9.09. Events page now updated!

• 19.01.09: Dr Danny Donnelly's new book on Municipal Policing in Scotland is reviewed and an article based on his research on community wardens is now accessible from the articles page.

• 9.10.08: Dr Lesley McAra's presentation to the European Society of Criminology Conference (September 2008) entitled 'Global politics and local culture: crime control and penal practice in a small nation' is now online. (Links to 353KB .pdf).

• 3.10.09. CjScotland's 6th Birthday Now starting our seventh year of the project and still afloat (just)

• Have you ever been frustrated by the patchy media coverage of Parliamentary business or need to check current developments in criminal justice legislation? Our new weekly Parliamentary review is now online to summarise, track and link to criminal justice developments at Holyrood for you. The page has been made possible by a grant from the Clarke Foundation for Legal Education for which we are grateful. It will be posted early every week following the business reviewed
  
  

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