Following on from our last item on the Court of Session - Court of Session (2) - and now that the Supreme Court of the UK has ruled very decisively on the matter of the Named Person Service, it is rather appropriate to consider the case of the Named Person Service in greater detail.
The case (Ref P679/14) originally called in the Outer House of the Court of Session before the Lord Ordinary, Lord Pentland (aka Paul Cullen), in November 2014. After days of argument, Lord Pentland dismissed the case, lock, stock and barrel. As the judge said in delivering judgement, 'I have concluded that the petitioners' case falls on all points ........ the petitioners' case is speculative and hypothetical'. A truly Nyet! decision if ever there was one, something of which totalitarian states would be proud.
What is even more alarming about the decision is that not only did Pentland reject the legal arguments advanced, but also he decided that the first four petitioners in the case, all childrens' charities, lacked title to pursue the matter. This, unquestionably, added insult to injury, and not least because it was the Lord Advocate (Mulholland), representing The Scottish Government, who raised the issue of title to sue in the first place.
The petitioners were having none of it and appealed (or, reclaimed, to use the legal lingo). See Court of Session (4).
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