In her lectures and other speeches, Lady Brenda Hale has established herself as a leading voice in contemporary legal circles. With remarkable clarity, she develops recurring and lifelong interests, among others : judicial independence, access to justice, gender equality, and the place of the judiciary in a modern democracy. Her interventions often combine doctrinal analysis, comments drawn from her own judicial experience, and thoughts on institutions. Which altogether gives her lectures an echo in academia and beyond.
Much sought after by universities, professional associations, and international conferences, she has helped bring the judicial and academic worlds closer together while making constitutional issues accessible to a wider audience. These addresses now form a valuable body of work, illuminating both her legal thought and her demanding conception of the judiciary in modern society.
Title | Occasion | Date | Subject | Link |
Woman and children last | Alba Lecture | 2009 | Family law | |
Justice for the jains: remedies for bad administration | F W Guest Memorial Lecture University of Otago | 2010 | Separation of powers | |
Dignity | Ethel Benjamin Commemorative Address | 2010 | Grands principes du droit | |
Terrorism and global security | 10th Biennial International Conference of International Association of Women Judges | 2010 | Fundamental rights | |
Georgetown commencement speech | Georgetown University | 2010 | Fundamental rights | |
Salford Human Rights Conference | Salford Human Rights Conference | 2010 | Fundamental rights | |
Judgment writing in the Supreme Court | First anniversary seminar | 2010 | Separation of powers | |
Beanstalk or living instrument? How tall can the ECHR grow ? | Barnard’s Inn Reading | 2011 | Fundamental rights | |
Equal Access to Justice in the Big Society | Sir Hodge Memorial Lecture | 2011 | Fundamental rights | |
Opening Address | Law Centres Federation Annual Conference 2011 | 2011 | Separation of powers | |
Argentoratum locutum: Is the Supreme Court supreme ? | Nottingham Human Rights Lecture | 2011 | Separation of powers | |
The Supreme Court in the UK Constitution | Legal Wales conference | 2012 | Separation of powers | |
It’s a Man’s World: Redressing the Balance | Norfolk Law Lecture, University of East Anglia, Norwich | 2012 | Women’s rights | |
Equality in the Judiciary | Kuttan Menon Memorial Lecture | 2013 | Separation of powers | |
Should judges be socio-legal scholars? | Socio-Legal Studies Association 2013 Conference | 2013 | Separation of powers | |
Who’s Afraid of Children’s Rights? | Welsh Observatory on the Human Rights of Children and Young People | 2013 | Family law | |
New Families and the Welfare of Children | Morgan Centre Conference, LSE | 2013 | Family law | |
The Conflict of Equalities | Alison Weatherfield Memorial Lecture at the Employment Lawyers Association | 2013 | Fundamental rights | |
What are Care Proceedings for? | Munkman Lecture 2013 at BPP Law School, Leeds | 2013 | Family law | |
Who Guards the Guardians? | Public Law Project Conference | 2013 | Separation of powers | |
Young Legal Aid Lawyers: Social Mobility | London South Bank University | 2013 | Separation of powers | |
What’s the point of human rights? | Warwick Law Lecture | 2013 | Fundamental rights | |
Religion and Sexual Orientation: The clash of equality rights | Comparative and Administrative Law Conference, Yale Law School | 2014 | Fundamental rights | |
Professional Negligence – a panacea for the law’s injustices? | Professional Negligence Bar Association: Peter Taylor Lecture | 2014 | Tort law | |
Freedom of Religion and Belief | Annual Human Rights Lecture for the Law Society of Ireland | 2014 | Fundamental rights | |
Women in the Judiciary | Fiona Woolf Lecture for the Women Lawyers’ Division of the Law Society | 2014 | Women’s rights | |
UK Constitutionalism on the March? | Constitutional and Administrative Law Bar Association Conference | 2014 | UK constitution | |
Are we a Christian country? Religious freedom and the law | Oxfordshire High Sheriff’s Lecture | 2014 | Fundamental rights | |
The Other Side of the Table? | Mental Health Tribunal Members’ Association | 2014 | Medical law | |
Psychiatry and the Law: An enduring interest for Lord Rodger | The Lord Rodger Memorial Lecture | 2014 | Medical law | |
The Supreme Court in the United Kingdom Constitution | The Bryce Lecture, Somerville College, Oxford | 2015 | Separation of powers | |
Magna Carta: Our Shared Heritage | Supreme Court Historical Society Annual Lecture, Washington D.C. | 2015 | Separation of powers | |
The UK Supreme Court in the United Kingdom Constitution | Inaugural lecture at the Institute for Legal and Constitutional Research, University of St Andrews | 2015 | Separation of powers | |
Magna Carta: Did she die in vain? | Gray’s Inn | 2015 | Separation of powers | |
Appointments to the Supreme Court | tenth anniversary of the Judicial Appointments Commission, University of Birmingham | 2015 | Separation of powers | |
Are we nearly there yet? | Association of Lawyers for Children Annual Conference 2015, Manchester | 2015 | Family law | |
Human Rights and Social Justice | York University, Festival of Ideas 2016 | 2016 | Fundamental rights | |
Legislation or judicial law reform: where should judges fear to tread? | Society of Legal Scholars Conference 2016 | 2016 | Separation of powers | |
The Supreme Court: Guardian of the Constitution? | Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture 2016, Kuala Lumpur | 2016 | Separation of powers | |
The United Kingdom Constitution on the move | The Canadian Institute for Advanced Legal Studies’ Cambridge Lectures | 2017 | UK constitution | |
Judges, Power and Accountability, Constitutional Implications of Judicial Selection | Constitutional Law Summer School, Belfast | 2017 | Separation of powers | |
Religious Dress | Sultan Azlan Shah Lecture Oxford | 2018 | Fundamental rights | |
2018 – A Year of Anniversaries | The 2018 Pankhurst Lecture, University of Manchester | 2018 | Women’s rights | |
Dishonesty | Bristol Alumni Association Lecture 2018 | 2018 | Legal theory | |
Reflecting on the Legacy of Chief Justice Mclachlin | University of Ottawa | 2018 | Legal theory | |
Keynote Speech | Resolution’s 30th National Conference, Bristol | 2018 | Family law | |
Openness and Privacy in Family Proceedings | Sir Nicholas Wall Memorial Lecture 2018, Gray’s Inn, London | 2018 | Family law | |
Challenges in the justice system and the contribution of empirical research | Nuffield Foundation: 75th Anniversary Lecture | 2018 | Judiciary | |
Devolution and The Supreme Court – 20 Years On | Scottish Public Law Group 2018, Edinburgh | 2018 | Devolution | |
Is it time for yet another Mental Health Act? | Royal College of Psychiatrists Annual Conference, Birmingham | 2018 | Medical law | |
The Contribution of Scottish Cases to Developing United Kingdom | Law Society of Scotland Annual Conference 2018 | 2018 | Devolution | |
Equality and Human Rights | Oxford Equality Lecture 2018 | 2018 | Fundamental rights | |
All Human Beings? Reflections on the 70th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights | Society of Legal Scholars Centenary Lecture 2018, University of Essex | 2018 | Fundamental rights | |
Celebrating 70 years of the Universal Declaration and 20 years of the Human Rights Act | British Institute of Human Rights Annual Lecture 2018 Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, London | 2018 | Fundamental rights | |
Should the Law Lords have left the House of Lords? | Michael Ryle Lecture 2018 River Room, House of Lords, London | 2018 | Judiciary | |
Celebrating Women’s Rights | Birmingham Law Society and Holdsworth Club 2018 | 2018 | Women’s rights | |
Human Rights and Family Life in the United Kingdom and Islands | Caroline Weatherill Memorial Lecture 2018 The Isle of Man Law Society | 2018 | Fundamental rights | |
On Courage | Millicent Fawcett Memorial Lecture 2018 The Royal Society, London | 2018 | Legal theory | |
Moral courage in the law | The Worcester Lecture 2019, Worcester Cathedral | 2019 | Legal theory | |
Religious Dress | Woolf Institute, Cambridge | 2019 | Fundamental rights | |
Principle and Pragmatism in Developing Private Law | Cambridge Freshfields Lecture 2019 | 2019 | Legal theory | |
100 Years of Women in the Law: From Bertha Cave to Brenda Hale | King’s College London | 2019 | Family law | |
What is the United Kingdom Supreme Court for? | Macfadyen Lecture 2019, Edinburgh | 2019 | Separation of powers | |
Legal Aid at 70 Legal Action Group | Legal Action Group, London | 2019 | Separation of powers | |
The Rights of Disabled Children | Northern Ireland Children’s Law Centre 2019 | 2019 | Family law | |
100 Years of Women in the Law | Girton’s Visitor’s Anniversary Lecture 2019 | 2019 | Women’s rights | |
Impact in the Courts | Impact and Law Reform Conference 2019, Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, London | 2019 | Separation of powers | |
Women’s Rights Worldwide | Grotius Lecture 2019, Bank of England, London | 2019 | Women’s rights | |
What is a 21st Century Family? | International Centre for Family Law, Policy and Practice 2019 | 2019 | Family law | |
Law and Politics: A Reply to Reith | Dame Frances Patterson Memorial Lecture 2019 | 2019 | Separation of powers | |
Principle and Pragmatism in Public Law | Sir David Williams Lecture 2019 | 2019 | Legal theory | |
30 Years of the Children Act 1989 | Scarman Lecture 2019, Law Commission, London | 2019 | Family law | |
Women in law – the next 100 years | BACFI Denning Lecture 2019 Athenaeum, Pall Mall, London | 2019 | Women’s rights | |
‘When there are 12’: Legal Education and a Diverse Judiciary | Lord Upjohn Lecture 2021 | 2021 | Separation of powers | |
Courts and Tribunals | Annual Upper Tribunal (UTAAC/UTIAC) Lecture | 2021 | Separation of powers | |
Keynote Address | Annual Human Rights Lecture 2022, Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission | 2022 | Fundamental rights |
