The Lady Hale Collection
Access here a collection of judicial decisions, articles, lectures and podcasts in honour of Lady Hale, assembled as part of a project developed by the Chair of Comparative Public Law and Politics. These materials highlight her extraordinary career, long-standing commitments, and the enduring influence of her work as one of the most senior judges in twenty-first-century Britain.
Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, or Lady Hale, is one of the leading figures of contemporary British law. Born in 1945 and trained as an academic, she began her career as a law professor before becoming a member of the prestigious Law Commission, tasked with making recommendations to the Government, Parliament, or the Welsh Senedd to promote the development of English law. As an expert in family law, she was directly responsible for three statutes: the Children Act 1989, the Family Law Act 1996, and the Mental Capacity Act 2005. She was appointed a High Court judge in 1994 (England and Wales), and joined the Court of Appeal in 1999. In 2004, she became the first woman to be appointed a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary within the Appellate Committee of the House of Lords, then the United Kingdom’s highest court. When the Supreme Court came into being on 1 October 2009, she became its only female Justice before later serving as its Deputy President.
In 2017, she became the first woman to serve as President of the UK Supreme Court, a position she held until her retirement in 2020. She left a lasting impression on the institution thanks to her intellectual rigour, her pedagogical clarity, and her constant commitment to judicial independence, fundamental rights, and access to justice.
She came to wider public attention during the constitutional litigation surrounding Brexit, where she came to embody the voice of the rule of law against abuses of executive power. She became affectionately known as “Spider Woman,” in reference to the spider-shaped brooch she wore on the day judgment was delivered in Miller/Cherry, and more broadly to her well-known fondness for such jewellery – a kind of personal signature.
A recognised specialist in public law, human rights, family law, and social law, Lady Hale is also a prolific author and a much sought-after speaker since her retirement (including appearances at literary festivals and in documentary programmes). Throughout her career, she consistently advocated equality between women and men, in particular greater representation of women within the judiciary, which she regarded as essential to institutional legitimacy.
This collection seeks to pay tribute both to an exceptional career and to an extraordinary person by bringing together texts, talks, and resources that reflect a phenomenal work ethic and a deeply demanding conception of the law. It follows the award, on 15 March 2024, of an honorary doctorate conferred on Brenda Hale by Université Jean-Monnet Saint-Étienne at the initiative of the Chair’s holder, Aurélien Antoine. This distinction recognises the importance of her scholarly and institutional contribution, as well as the deep esteem in which her work and her person are held by the French university.