‘Taking care of the small: Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and childhood accidental injury claims in Scotland’

This article addresses the right to life, survival and development, guaranteed to every child by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 6, within the context of childhood accidental injury in Scotland. It is argued that Scots law fails to meet the obligations incumbent on States Parties to provide a safe and supportive environment that recognises the special position of the injured child claimant. The nature of the obligation that article 6 imposes upon States Parties, and upon Scotland in particular, is discussed before certain significant legal difficulties facing Scottish child claimants are analysed. That analysis demonstrates that a mechanistic application of the doctrine of contributory negligence in cases concerning children is conceptually flawed and has produced inconsistent and inequitable outcomes. In conclusion, a way forward is proposed in the form of three strategies which might be employed to generate an article 6 compliant approach within the existing legal framework

‘Taking care of the small: Article 6 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child and childhood accidental injury claims in Scotland’

This article addresses the right to life, survival and development, guaranteed to every child by the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, article 6, within the context of childhood accidental injury in Scotland. It is argued that Scots law fails to meet the obligations incumbent on States Parties to provide a safe and supportive environment that recognises the special position of the injured child claimant. The nature of the obligation that article 6 imposes upon States Parties, and upon Scotland in particular, is discussed before certain significant legal difficulties facing Scottish child claimants are analysed. That analysis demonstrates that a mechanistic application of the doctrine of contributory negligence in cases concerning children is conceptually flawed and has produced inconsistent and inequitable outcomes. In conclusion, a way forward is proposed in the form of three strategies which might be employed to generate an article 6 compliant approach within the existing legal framework

Rethinking Childhood Contributory Negligence: 'Blame', 'Fault' - but what about Children's Rights?

Article 3 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child provides that the child’s ‘best interests… shall be a primary consideration’ in all actions concerning the child. The United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child has indicated something of the magnitude of the concept of best interests, describing it as ‘a substantive right’, ‘a fundamental interpretative legal principle’ and ‘a rule of procedure’. In many areas of domestic law the child’s best interests are discernible as a consideration when decisions are made that have an impact on children. However, the child’s best interests are not recognised as being of primary, or indeed of any, consequence in determinations about childhood contributory negligence. Further, judgments about the contributory negligence of the young often indicate inconsistent, and unpredictable, approaches and outcomes concerning children. This article contextualises the issue of childhood contributory fault within wider UK law and analyses the position of children in the field of delict/tort with reference to two high profile decisions, Probert v Moore and Jackson v Murray. A number of options for reform of the law, practice and policy are proposed – including a Children’s Civil Injuries Compensation Scheme – that would render the way the legal systems in the United Kingdom address the contributory negligence of children more compliant with Article 3

A critical evaluation of the rights, status and capacity of distinct categories of Individuals in underdeveloped and emerging areas of law

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how my research promotes knowledge exchange about my overarching research theme: the rights, status and capacity of distinct categories of individuals in underdeveloped and emerging areas of law.These categories include disempowered individuals (namely young people and transsexuals) and persons of reduced or questionable legal capacity (to date, children and disabled people).The thesis is in two parts. Part 1 (Volume I) is a reflective commentary and Part 2 (Volume II) comprises the published work submitted. In the reflective commentary, my published work is critically appraised and placed within a wider legal and thematic framework. My overarching research theme is summarised and evaluated with reference to the legal premises, methodology and the research outcomes of mypublished work. In particular, I present a critical reflection of eight of my publications, each of which is concerned with the impact of the law, and issues surrounding legal reform, upon the young and certain disempowered adults. I demonstrate that this body of work forms a contribution to interdisciplinary sharing of novel and meaningful research outputs both (i) within the academic arena and (ii) throughout the widerprofessional community. I argue that my published work is original, because it is concerned with important, but largely neglected, areas of Scottish (and often wider UK) law. Furthermore, I argue that my publications are independent and significant in that they provide a distinct and critical evaluation of existing law and seek to promote the growth of individual status and capacity. This, in turn, often generates greater provision for individual rights, and the imposition in law of private law and state remedies

A critical evaluation of the rights, status and capacity of distinct categories of Individuals in underdeveloped and emerging areas of law

The aim of this thesis is to demonstrate how my research promotes knowledge exchange about my overarching research theme: the rights, status and capacity of distinct categories of individuals in underdeveloped and emerging areas of law.These categories include disempowered individuals (namely young people and transsexuals) and persons of reduced or questionable legal capacity (to date, children and disabled people).The thesis is in two parts. Part 1 (Volume I) is a reflective commentary and Part 2 (Volume II) comprises the published work submitted. In the reflective commentary, my published work is critically appraised and placed within a wider legal and thematic framework. My overarching research theme is summarised and evaluated with reference to the legal premises, methodology and the research outcomes of mypublished work. In particular, I present a critical reflection of eight of my publications, each of which is concerned with the impact of the law, and issues surrounding legal reform, upon the young and certain disempowered adults. I demonstrate that this body of work forms a contribution to interdisciplinary sharing of novel and meaningful research outputs both (i) within the academic arena and (ii) throughout the widerprofessional community. I argue that my published work is original, because it is concerned with important, but largely neglected, areas of Scottish (and often wider UK) law. Furthermore, I argue that my publications are independent and significant in that they provide a distinct and critical evaluation of existing law and seek to promote the growth of individual status and capacity. This, in turn, often generates greater provision for individual rights, and the imposition in law of private law and state remedies

Patrick v Patrick and Re A letter to a Young Person : Judicial Letters to Children – an Unannounced, but not an Unwelcome, Development

"A letter", Nietzsche once wrote, "is an unannounced visit, the postman the agent of rude surprises". Given the extremely personal nature of many family law judgments, it is rare and rather surprising when parties, their children or, indeed, the judiciary set out their views in the form of a published letter. Two recent cases in which courts have communicated their decision by letter (Patrick v Patrick and Re A letter to a Young Person) are therefore worthy of note. In each case, the letter was addressed to the children in respect of whom orders were sought. The children ranged in age from six to fourteen years.Patrick, a decision of Sheriff Anwar at Glasgow, concerned a “bitter and acrimonious dispute” regarding whether a father should be entitled to “contact, in any form” with his three children described as being “aged between 12 and 6 years”. In Re A letter to a Young Person, Mr Justice Peter Jackson determined a relocation dispute involving a fourteen year-old boy who had been the subject of repeat family court orders since he was one year old. Both judicial letters received publicity, with excerpts from each being published in national newspapers

Practicability in ascertaining children’s views: superseding ‘the default position’

This paper considers the issue of ‘practicability’ in ascertaining the views of children in family proceedings with reference to the recent, and noteworthy, Scottish Inner House judgment of M v C. As each of the is UK nations contemplate more fully incorporating and implementing the UNCRC, it is argued that statutory provision alone does not guarantee children’s rights will be honoured in practice. How the judiciary interpret and balance the child’s Convention rights will be crucial

The role of metrology in axSpA : does it provide unique information in assessing patients and predicting outcome? Results from the BSRBR-AS registry

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS We thank the staff who contributed to running the BSRBR-AS register and we also thank the recruiting staff at the clinical centers, details of which are available at: www.abdn.ac.uk/bsrbr-as.Peer reviewedPostprin

Kodoja : a workflow for virus detection in plants using k-mer analysis of RNA-sequencing data

This work was supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council [BB/N023293/1]. The work of L.T., S.J., S.M. and P.C.was additionally supported by the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services division (RESAS)RNA-sequencing of plant material allows for hypothesis-free detection of multiple viruses simultaneously. This methodology relies on bioinformatics workflows for virus identification. Most workflows are designed for human clinical data, and few go beyond sequence mapping for virus identification. We present a new workflow (Kodoja) for the detection of plant virus sequences in RNA-sequence data. Kodoja uses k-mer profiling at the nucleotide level and sequence mapping at the protein level by integrating two existing tools Kraken and Kaiju. Kodoja was tested on three existing RNA-seq datasets from grapevine, and two new RNA-seq datasets from raspberry. For grapevine, Kodoja was shown to be more sensitive than a method based on contig building and blast alignments (27 viruses detected compared to 19). The application of Kodoja to raspberry, showed that field-grown raspberries were infected by multiple viruses, and that RNA-seq can identify lower amounts of virus material than reverse transcriptase PCR. This work enabled the design of new PCR-primers for detection of Raspberry yellow net virus and Beet ringspot virus. Kodoja is a sensitive method for plant virus discovery in field samples and enables the design of more accurate primers for detection. Kodoja is available to install through Bioconda and as a tool within Galaxy.PostprintPeer reviewe

Natural resistance to Potato virus Y in <i>Solanum tuberosum</i> Group Phureja

This work was supported by funding from the Scottish Government’s Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services (RESAS) Division.A new source of genetic resistance derived from Solanum tuberosum Group Phureja against Potato virus Y (PVY) was identified and genetically characterised in three diploid biparental potato populations. Segregation data for two populations (05H1 and 08H1) suggested the presence of a single dominant gene for resistance to PVY which, following DaRT analysis of the 08H1 cross, was mapped to chromosome 9. More detailed genetic analysis of resistance utilised a well-characterised SNP-linkage map for the 06H1 population, together with newly generated marker data. In these plants, which have both S. tuberosum Group Phureja and S. tuberosum Group Tuberosum in their pedigree, the resistance was shown to map to chromosome 9 at a locus not previously associated with PVY resistance, although there is evidence for at least one other genetic factor controlling PVY infection. The resistance factor location on chromosome 9 (named as Ry(o)phu) suggests a potential role of NB-LRR genes in this resistance. Phenotypic analysis using a GUS-tagged virus revealed that a small amount of PVY replication occurred in occasional groups of epidermal cells in inoculated leaves of resistant plants, without inducing any visible hypersensitive response. However, the virus did not enter the vascular system and systemic spread was completely prevented.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe