The MiniTrials scheme was set up by the Honourable Lord Kinclaven in 2002. Lord Kinclaven’s vision was to see a MiniTrial running in every school in Scotland.

Background

The programme has been running now for over 20 years. Prior to COVID MiniTrials had become a staple of school education programmes.

As well as setting up a website and writing the materials, he established an Inter-schools event in Edinburgh. Other Inter-schools events have taken place across Scotland – in Glasgow, Kilmarnock, Ayr, Paisley, Stirling, Alloa, Airdrie, Falkirk, Dumfries and Dundee.  There have also been numerous “in-school” events.

Lord Kinclaven was awarded an OBE by the late Queen in 2016 for the work he did for the MiniTrial Educational Initiative. In accepting his award he said “This is a great honour which must be dedicated to the thousands of young people, teachers, lawyers and court staff who have worked together to make MiniTrials such a success. It is a simple user-friendly way of finding out more about our Scottish Legal system – and it is great fun too.”