Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond
Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond
The Right Honourable The Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC | |
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President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 5 September 2017 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Deputy | Lord Mance Lord Reed |
Preceded by | Lord Neuberger |
Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
In office 28 June 2013 – 4 September 2017 | |
President | Lord Neuberger |
Preceded by | Lord Hope |
Succeeded by | Lord Mance |
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 1 October 2009 | |
Preceded by | Position created |
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 12 January 2004 – 30 September 2009 | |
Preceded by | Lord Millett |
Succeeded by | Position eliminated |
Lady Justice of Appeal | |
In office 1999–2003 | |
High Court Judge Family Division | |
In office 1994–1999 | |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal (Judicial Peer) | |
In office 12 January 2004 – 1 October 2009 | |
7th Chancellor of the University of Bristol | |
In office 2004–2017 | |
Preceded by | Sir Jeremy Morse |
Succeeded by | Sir Paul Nurse |
Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong | |
Assumed office 30 July 2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Brenda Marjorie Hale (1945-01-31)31 January 1945 Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Spouse(s) |
|
Children | 1 |
Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge |
In 2004, she joined the House of Lords as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. She is the only woman to have been appointed to this position. She served as a Law Lord until 2009 when she, along with the other Law Lords, transferred to the new Supreme Court. She served as Deputy President of the Supreme Court from 2013 to 2017.
On 5 September 2017, Hale was appointed as President of the Supreme Court, and was sworn in on 2 October 2017. She is the third person and first woman to serve in the role, which was established in 2009. Hale is one of three women to have been appointed to the Supreme Court (alongside Lady Black and Lady Arden).
Since 30 July 2018, Hale has been a non-permanent judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong. Alongside Beverley McLachlin, she is the first woman to serve in that court. Hale has also been Honorary President of the Cambridge University Law Society since 2015.[2]
The Right Honourable The Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC | |
---|---|
President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 5 September 2017 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Deputy | Lord Mance Lord Reed |
Preceded by | Lord Neuberger |
Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
In office 28 June 2013 – 4 September 2017 | |
President | Lord Neuberger |
Preceded by | Lord Hope |
Succeeded by | Lord Mance |
Justice of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 1 October 2009 | |
Preceded by | Position created |
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary | |
In office 12 January 2004 – 30 September 2009 | |
Preceded by | Lord Millett |
Succeeded by | Position eliminated |
Lady Justice of Appeal | |
In office 1999–2003 | |
High Court Judge Family Division | |
In office 1994–1999 | |
Appointed by | Elizabeth II |
Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal (Judicial Peer) | |
In office 12 January 2004 – 1 October 2009 | |
7th Chancellor of the University of Bristol | |
In office 2004–2017 | |
Preceded by | Sir Jeremy Morse |
Succeeded by | Sir Paul Nurse |
Non-Permanent Judge of the Court of Final Appeal of Hong Kong | |
Assumed office 30 July 2018 | |
Personal details | |
Born | Brenda Marjorie Hale (1945-01-31)31 January 1945 Leeds, West Riding of Yorkshire, England |
Spouse(s) |
|
Children | 1 |
Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge |
Early life
Brenda Marjorie Hale[3] 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), and 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.[4][5]
After becoming an assistant law lecturer at the Victoria University of Manchester (now the University of Manchester), she was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1969, topping the list in the bar finals for that year.[4][5]
Working part-time as a barrister, Hale spent 18 years mostly in academia, becoming Professor of Law at Manchester in 1986. Two years earlier, she became the first woman and youngest person to be appointed to the Law Commission, overseeing a number of important reforms[6] in family law during her nine years with the Commission. In 1989, she was appointed Queen's Counsel.[4]
Judicial career
Hale was appointed a Recorder (a part-time circuit judge) in 1989, and in 1994 became a judge in the Family Division of the High Court of Justice (styled The Honourable Mrs Justice Hale).[4] Upon her appointment, as is convention, she was appointed a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire (DBE). In 1999, Hale followed Dame Elizabeth Butler-Sloss to become only the second woman to be appointed to the Court of Appeal (styled The Right Honourable Lady Justice Hale), entering the Privy Council at the same time.[7]
On 21 March 2018, the Hong Kong judiciary announced her nomination as a non-permanent judge from other common law jurisdictions of the Court of Final Appeal. Her appointment was accompanied by the appointments of Andrew Cheung and Beverley McLachlin.[11] The appointment was gazetted by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam and took effect 30 July 2018 for a three-year term.[12]
In December 2018, during an interview to mark the centenary of the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919, Lady Hale argued that the judiciary needed to become more diverse so that the public have greater confidence in judges. Hale called for a more balanced gender representation on the UK's highest court and swifter progress promoting those from minority ethnic backgrounds and with “less privileged lives”. However, Hale objected to the idea of positive discrimination because “no one wants to feel they have got the job in any way other than on their own merits”.[13]
Selected cases
The Public Prosecution Service v William Elliott and Robert McKee [2013] UKSC 32
Secretary of State for the Home Department v MB and AF [32] [2007] UKHL 46
Secretary of State for the Home Department v AF and others [33] [2009] UKHL 28
R (Miller) v The Prime Minister and Cherry v Advocate General for Scotland [2019] UKSC 41
Significant lectures
On 10 September 2015, she delivered the Caldwell Public Lecture at the University of Melbourne, Australia, on the topic "Protecting Human Rights in the UK Courts: What are we doing wrong?".[14]
On 2 November 2018, she 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"
Honorary degrees
Arms
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