Spider Woman: A Life – by the former President of the Supreme Court

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Throughout her long legal career, Lady Hale has had an interest in constitutional law (Britain does not have a written constitution – the constitution encompasses all laws made in the land) and in the promotion of women’s and family rights. Many of the rights that we, as women, take for granted in this country today, were either brought about or strengthened by Lady Hale. She is a proud feminist and politically unaligned. Unlike her colleagues in the Suprema Court—former self-employed barristers—Lady Hale, as she admitted in a leading employment law case, had personal experience of being employed: Edwards v Chesterfield Royal Hospital Foundation Trust [2011] UKSC 58 at para 110. (I am indebted to Gillian Morris, Honorary Professor at University College London for this reference.). I was given a brooch by the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges to mark my retirement from the supreme court. It was a specially commissioned piece. It’s… a scorpion. On 2 November 2018, Hale delivered an SLS Centenary Lecture at the University of Essex, United Kingdom, on the topic of "All Human Beings? Reflection on the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights".

Spider Woman - Penguin Books UK

Women and the Law (as Brenda Hoggett, with Susan Atkins, 1984, republished 2018, Institute of Advanced Legal studies, University of London) ISBN 9781911507109 In September 2019, Prime Minister Boris Johnson prorogued Parliament over Brexit. As President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, Lady Hale found that Johnson's prorogation was unlawful, terminating the suspension of Parliament. [18] Hale described the ruling as "a source of, not pride, but satisfaction." [19] In 2020, reaching the mandatory retirement age, Hale retired from the court. [20] Hong Kong judgeship [ edit ] A] compelling autobiography... Hale reveals more than one might expect Frances Gibb, The Times, *Books of the Year*Her account of her career, though fluently written, is a strange mixture: sometimes exciting, and sometimes dusty Further defence of the decision comes from Professor Alison L Young, of Cambridge, followed by Professor Anne Twomey, of the University of Sydney, Australia, who considers among other things “How might such issues be dealt with in Australia?” We then move from New South Wales to Old North Wales, as Mr Justice (Michael) Fordham, as he now is, contributes an essay from his perspective as lead advocate for the Counsel General for Wales, third intervener in the Prorogation Case. He makes the point that the case affected the UK as a whole but also had implications for and required the participation of all the devolved nations. By the same token there is also a piece from John F Larkin QC, Attorney General for Northern Ireland. (Though he wasn’t an intervener, one of the other interveners in the case was Raymond McCord, a victims’ campaigner concerned about the consequences of prorogation decision on the Good Friday Agreement.) I appreciated Lady Hale's softness throughout the book, she didn't feel the need to present herself as a 'strong' woman. She was open about her feelings of being an imposter at points and about her disappointments. She was logical and listening in her approach to cases. She smiled through moments where her gender unnecessarily became the forefront and calmly requested changes to be made. She remained human and ordinary in her writing and that makes it more inspiring as a reader- there is a feeling of 'maybe I could do something like that too'.

Spider Woman bites back - The New European The Spider Woman bites back - The New European

As a woman aspiring barrister, I can't help but feel like an imposter most of the time when I am in the midst of/ working towards pursuing a career at the English Bar. However, it is quite reassuring to know that it is normal to experience this but one's progress in achieving success should never be hindered by it. Hoggett, Anthony John Christopher. UK Who's Who. doi: 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.U20455. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Archived from the original on 10 November 2020 . Retrieved 24 September 2019. She adds: “Think of Royal weddings and the coronation but religion should not intrude into secular life, for example in prayers before council meetings. We are a society of many faiths and none and no one should feel excluded because they don’t belong.” Brenda Hale is indeed a superhero (as it says on the book cover). I thoroughly enjoyed this memoir, which includes summaries of landmark cases she has decided.Baroness Hale's autobiography, Spider Woman, is a reminder of the huge but incomplete progress made by women in public life over the past 60 years... The willingness to talk truth to power that she has shown is needed now more than ever Rachel Reeves, New Statesman, *Books of the Year* She became head girl at Richmond – as did her two sisters – but her headmistress, a historian, didn’t think history was right for her to study at Cambridge and so they settled on law.

Spider Woman by Brenda Hale | Goodreads Spider Woman by Brenda Hale | Goodreads

Lady Hale is an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and for the causes she has championed. Spider Woman is her story. Brenda Marjorie Hale [6] was born on 31 January 1945 in Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire. Both her parents were headteachers. She has two sisters. Hale lived in Redcar until the age of three when she moved with her parents to Richmond, North Yorkshire. She was educated at the Richmond High School for Girls (now part of Richmond School), where she and her two sisters were all head girls. [7] She later studied at Girton College, Cambridge (the first from her school to attend Cambridge), where she read law. Hale was one of six women in her class, which had 110 men, and graduated with a starred first and top of her class in 1966. [8] [9] Notes Granted by Garter Gwynn-Jones, 16 June 2004 [60] Escutcheon Gules two scrolls in saltire Argent banded crosswise Vert attached thereto four seals in cross Or all between four towers crenellations outwards Argent. [61] Supporters Two frogs Vert crowned Or. Motto Omnia Feminae Aequissimae (translated by Debrett's in 2007 as "Everything To The Most Just Woman", but widely discussed in media in 2019 as "Women Are Equal To Everything" [62] [63]) Symbolism The castles represent Richmond while the scrolls represent the law. The crowned frog supporters represent the frog prince. [64] For Hale, the frog prince relates to her husband and her large collection of ceramic frogs. ("It's an inside joke between us. My husband was my frog prince. Now people give us frogs.") [65] I really enjoyed this autobiography, purely because I find Lady Hale so inspirational on both a personal and a professional level. She was a trailblazer for women in the legal field and absolutely smashed the glass ceilings above her. Of all of her incredible achievements, I most resonated to her work in family law and domestic abuse, especially her influence on The Children Act 1989. I also enjoyed her memoirs of her previous cases and even her shoutout to her time in Lincoln (my hometown!). The 12 Supreme Court judges were unanimous, and Lady Hale retired to her home on the edge of Richmond to write the verdict that she delivered with the eyes of the nation – perhaps the continent – upon her, and her brooch.A feminist icon... Her success story is an inspiration for men and women both - showing that law matters Baroness Helena Kennedy QC a b "Hale of Richmond, Baroness, (Brenda Marjorie Hale) (born 31 Jan. 1945)". WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO. 2007. doi: 10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u18586. ISBN 978-0-19-954088-4. Archived from the original on 1 October 2020 . Retrieved 22 September 2020. Honorary Graduates - Graduation". Archived from the original on 24 January 2020 . Retrieved 24 January 2020. Top court gets new judges". The Standard. Archived from the original on 21 March 2018 . Retrieved 21 March 2018. Hale was firmly in favour of abolishing blasphemy laws, and took a majority of the Law Commission with her. It didn’t happen, but the idea stayed around and was finally enacted in 2008, after which she attended, she writes, “a very jolly ‘bye bye blasphemy’ party held by the National Secular Society.”

Hale: ‘There’s absolutely no need to scrap the Human Brenda Hale: ‘There’s absolutely no need to scrap the Human

This article was amended on 3 October 2021 to remove a line stating that Lady Hale sat with “10 male judges” for the supreme court prorogation hearing; in fact she sat with eight male and two female judges. a b "CULS Lecture: Lady Hale – 'The Life of A Lady Law Lord' ". Faculty of Law, University of Cambridge. 3 February 2016. Archived from the original on 10 January 2018 . Retrieved 10 January 2018. Lady Hale's impressive career shows her to be more than just a woman with an interesting taste in accessories - she was the youngest person to be appointed Law Commissioner, the second woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal, a Law Lord, the first female Deputy President of the Supreme Court and then its first female President. It's a distinguished CV yet, somewhat surprisingly, Spider Woman starts off discussing Imposter Syndrome and from there goes on to chart Lady Hale's school days, role models and earliest experiences, and how they shaped her passion for the law. I was thinking about other things – is my summary accurate enough, is it complete enough, how are we going to get through the day, are there going to be riots – not about spiders.” Brenda Hale was born in 1945 in Leeds and spent her formative years in Richmond, North Yorkshire, to which her allegiance remains – she is Baroness Hale of Richmond, and describes it in the most idyllic terms in her new book, elaborating: “At its core, it is a very beautiful medieval-stroke-18th-century town, in very lovely countryside. You can’t romanticise it; that’s what it’s like.” Her parents were schoolteachers, “a very respected status in those days”, but the family were slightly removed from the class stratifications of the place, neither farmers nor gentry, and she has an outsider’s eye for social injustice. She never fails to reflect on who the system is and isn’t working for, whether that’s the 11-plus that got her to grammar school (but not her village primary school classmates), or the process of being called to the bar, which she managed without much incident in 1969 (pausing only to get married to Anthony Hoggett, a fellow trainee, the year before), but which is ruinously expensive for today’s young people.It is a book of rigour. Of ideas. Of arguments. Of the law. But it is also a book of deep emotions and tragedies that are kept in a tight draw and just allowed to see some light. The death of her father - so young. The death of her husband during COVID, just after she retired. These personal catastrophes are discussed with gentleness and evenness. On 7 March 2019, Hale delivered the University of Cambridge Freshfields law lecture, which she entitled "Principle and Pragmatism in Developing Private Law". [30]