News

Tackling barriers to strategic court cases in Scotland

Today sees the publication of a new report, Overcoming Barriers to Public Interest Litigation in Scotland, which explores why there is a lack of strategic court action in Scotland and suggests recommendations to address this.

It suggests key barriers are:

• Poor access to information about court cases;
• Limitations to who can take a case to court;
• Short time-limits for taking cases;
• Inhibitive costs and financial risk;
• A limited culture of using public interest litigation to bring change.

Authors Clan Childlaw, Human Rights Consortium Scotland, Amnesty International, Friends of the Earth Scotland, Shelter Scotland, JustRight Scotland and Rape Crisis Scotland are clear that if we are to see human rights progressed in Scotland, we need more NGOs to be able to pursue strategic cases.