Julian Aitken

Prior to calling to the bar in 2014, Julian was a solicitor for 18 years during which time he was accredited by the Law Society of Scotland as a specialist in child law. He was a reporter to the children’s panel for 3 of those years.

Since calling, he has built a busy and successful practice with a primary focus on family law including financial provision on divorce, cohabitation, s.11 child welfare cases, adoption, surrogacy, international child abduction and compulsory care cases.

He regularly appears in the Court of Session and Sheriff Courts across Scotland and has appeared, as junior counsel, on a number of occasions in the Supreme Court.

He has represented clients in several of the leading cases which developed the law in respect of children’s hearings, permanence orders, adoption, surrogacy and taking account of the views of children.

He has a particular interest in cases concerning Article 8 ECHR which he has addressed in public child law cases including by way of judicial review.

Selected cases:

Financial provision on divorce

Grant v Grant,  2018 SC (SAC) 26, Sheriff Appeal Court – the definition of “matrimonial property”

OB v AB, 2020 Fam LR 13, Outer House – resources limiting a claim for financial provision; the inability of the court, in a divorce case, to pierce the corporate veil

Adun v Adun, 2026 Fam LR 67, Outer House – discretionary sist of a divorce action with claims for financial provision on divorce when competing proceedings have been raised in another jurisdiction

Adoption and permanence orders

R v Stirling Council,  2016 SLT 689, Inner House – the necessity of applying the threshold test before a welfare assessment in respect of a permanence order application

Fife Council v M, 2016 SC 169,Inner House –Article 8 ECHR considerations in respect of a permanence order with authority to adopt

West Lothian Council v B, 2017 SC (UKSC) 67, Supreme Court – factors to be taken into account in respect of the threshold test in an application for a permanence order

V and V v F and F, 2017 Fam LR 110, Outer House – the proportionality of a kinship carer’s application for adoption

LO v N, 2017 Fam LR 44, Inner House – The need for the assessment of proportionality in respect of a kinship carer’s application for adoption

GD v City of Edinburgh Council, 2019 SC 1, Inner House – the demands on the court when applying the threshold test for granting a permanence order application

AB and CD v DK, 2019 SC (SAC) 78, Sheriff Appeal Court – the extent to which a parent can oppose the granting of an adoption order after a permanence order with authority to adopt has been granted

RG v Glasgow City Council, 2020 SC 1, Inner House – a court’s ability to rely on previously established grounds of referral in later permanence order proceedings; use of a court’s case management powers

East Lothian Council v L, 2023 SCLR 207, Sheriff Appeal Court – consideration of the factors weighing on post-permanence order parental contact as compared with post-adoption contact; Article 8 ECHR

JK and PK  v EM and TM, 2026 Fam LR 44, Sheriff Appeal Court – the circumstances in which a court may rely upon the “welfare” ground in s.31(3)(d) of the 2007 Act in respect of dispensation of a parent’s consent to an adoption order; Article 8 ECHR

Surrogacy

A, Petitioner, 2023 SLT 893, Outer House – Article 8 ECHR rights enabling the court to grant a parental order despite the facts being incompatible with the literal terms of the applicable statute

The children’s hearing system

M v Brechin (Locality Reporter, Glasgow), 2016 SC 98, Inner House – mens rea in respect of wilful ill-treatment of a child

JS v Children’s Reporter, 2016 SC 31, Inner House – the extent to which a court may rely upon untested hearsay evidence when determining the weight of children’s statements; the need for “counter balancing measures” if it does so; Articles 6 and 8 ECHR

CF v MF, 2017 SLT 945, Inner House – representation of a child; consideration of “deemed” relevant person status

Principal Reporter v LZ, 2017 SLT 961, Inner House – jurisdiction to bring, and procedural consequences of bringing,  proceedings before the children’s hearing in respect of a child who was habitually resident in another country

DM v Locality Reporter, 2019 SC 196, Inner House – representation of a child; the child’s participation as a sibling in the referred child’s children’s hearings

JLM v SCRA, 2019 SC 600, Inner House – the extent to which a children’s hearing, when making a decision which interfered with family life, may rely upon matters which had not been proven as fact; Article 8 ECHR

ABC v Principal Reporter,2020 SC (UKSC) 47, Supreme Court – siblings’ rights of participation in decisions about contact with a referred child; article 8 ECHR

KL v Principal Reporter, 2021 SC 146, Inner House – judicial review; the definition of “child” for the purposes of children’s hearing proceedings

JH V SCRA, 2023 SLT (SAC) 97, Sheriff Appeal Court – mens rea of assault in relation to a child; the appropriateness of an alternative disposal of a finding of wilful ill-treatment

A, Petitioner, 2025 SC 262, Inner House – judicial review; a children’s hearing’s power to determine that a father should be deprived of relevant person status despite meeting the statutory test to hold such a status

International child abduction

FPS v SM, 2025 SC 61, Inner House – Hague Conventions; mature children’s objections to return to country of habitual residence; consideration of the competing duties under the Hague Abduction Convention and the Hague Recognition and Enforcement Convention 

The views of children

LRK v AG, 2021 SLT (Sh Ct) 107, Sheriff Appeal Court – duty to take account of the up-to-date views of child when making a final determination at proof;  application of the ‘abuse and cooperation’ provisions in s.11(7A) – (7E) of the 1995 Act.

M v C, 2021 SLT 359, Sheriff Appeal Court – the duty to take steps to ascertain the views of children in s.11 proceedings when doing so may be harmful to the child

Procedure in s.11 cases

K v K, 2018 SLT (Sh Ct) 418, Sheriff Appeal Court – the incompetence of converting a proof, once commenced, into a child welfare hearing

ZN and MN v B and others, 2021 Fam LR 136, Inner House – the interplay between proceedings for s.11 orders and a pending asylum application

PSC v NS, 2026 SLT 465, Outer House – the absence of a need to evidence “a material change of circumstances” in minute for variation proceedings when it was proved that the order in place was unworkable and, otherwise, not in the best interests of the child

Contempt of court – contact orders

TJ v SB, 2018 SLT (Sh Ct) 277, Sheriff Appeal Court – penalties for and ‘purging’ of contempt of court for non-adherence to a contact order

Cohabitant’s occupancy rights

McBride v McInnes, 2024 SLT (SAC) 215, Sheriff Appeal Court – consideration of a non-entitled cohabitant’s rights to occupy a home after separation and the procedure involved in determining an application for such rights

Reduction of decree of divorce

Ligere v Ajid, 2026 CSOH 69, Outer House – explanation and application of the law regarding reduction of decree of divorce