Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond
The Right Honourable The Baroness Hale of Richmond DBE PC FBA | |
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President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
Assumed office 5 September 2017 | |
Monarch | Elizabeth II |
Deputy |
The Lord Mance Lord Reed |
Preceded by | The Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury |
Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom | |
In office 28 June 2013 – 4 September 2017 | |
President | The Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury |
Preceded by | The Lord Hope of Craighead |
Succeeded by | The 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 | The 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 | |
Assumed office 12 January 2004 Life Peerage | |
Personal details | |
Born |
Brenda Marjorie Hale 31 January 1945 Yorkshire, England |
Nationality |
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Political party | Crossbencher (independent) |
Spouse(s) |
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Alma mater | Girton College, Cambridge |
Profession | Barrister |
Brenda Marjorie Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, DBE, PC, FBA (Chinese: 何熙怡女男爵, born 31 January 1945)[1] is a British judge and the current President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom.
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 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).
Hale is Honorary President of the Cambridge University Law Society.[2]
Early life
Born in West Yorkshire, England in 1945,[3] Baroness Hale is the second of three sisters. Both her parents became headteachers. She was educated in Richmond in North Yorkshire at the Richmond High School for Girls (now part of Richmond School), and later studied at Girton College, Cambridge, where she read law and graduated with a starred first and top of her class. After becoming assistant lecturer in Law at 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.
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 in family law during her nine years with the Commission. In 1989, she was appointed Queen's Counsel.
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). 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.
On 12 January 2004, she was appointed the first female Lord of Appeal in Ordinary and was created a life peer as Baroness Hale of Richmond, of Easby in the County of North Yorkshire,[4] under the Appellate Jurisdiction Act 1876.
In June 2013, she was appointed as Deputy President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom to succeed Lord Hope of Craighead.
In September 2017, she was appointed as President of the Supreme Court to succeed Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury.[5]
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.[6] The appointment was gazetted by the Chief Executive of Hong Kong Carrie Lam and took effect July 30, 2018 for a 3 years term.[7]
Personal life
In 1968, Hale married Anthony Hoggett, a fellow law lecturer at Manchester, with whom she had one daughter. The marriage was dissolved in 1992, in which year she married Julian Farrand, former Professor of Law at Manchester, Pensions Ombudsman and colleague of Hale's on the Law Commission.
In April 2018, Hale featured as a celebrity judge on BBC cooking show MasterChef.[8]
Other
Hale is Visitor to Girton College, Cambridge, a position to which she was appointed in 2004. She is a member of the Athenaeum Club, London. From 2004 to the end of 2016 she was Chancellor of the University of Bristol.[10]
Hale was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Salford, where the main Law building is named after her. In 2008, she was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Reading.
In 2006, She was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws (LLD) by the University of Hull.
In 2011 Hale was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Kent.
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?".[11]
Selected cases
References
- ↑ Senior Judiciary List Archived 28 July 2012 at WebCite, Ministry of Justice.
- ↑ https://www.law.cam.ac.uk/press/events/2016/01/culs-lecture-lady-hale-life-lady-law-lord
- ↑ "Index entry". FreeBMD. ONS. Retrieved 21 July 2017.
- ↑ "No. 57179". The London Gazette. 15 January 2004. p. 503.
- ↑ "No. 62054". The London Gazette. 19 September 2017. p. 17466.
- ↑ "Top court gets new judges". The Standard. Retrieved 2018-03-21.
- ↑ Hong Kong Gazette Notice GN5815/2018
- ↑ Editor, Frances Gibb, Legal (30 April 2018). "Baroness Hale to lay down the law on MasterChef". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Retrieved 5 April 2018.
- ↑ https://www.ft.com/content/cdedc9ac-beaf-11e0-a36b-00144feabdc0
- ↑ "Nobel Prize winner announced as the University of Bristol's next Chancellor". Retrieved 2 March 2017.
- ↑ "Caldwell Public Lecture", Trinity College Events [online], accessed, 25 Aug. 2015.
External links
- Profile from The Guardian, 9 January 2004
Legal offices | ||
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Preceded by The Lord Millett |
Lord of Appeal in Ordinary 2004–2009 |
Abolished |
New office | Justice of the Supreme Court 2009–2013 |
Succeeded by Lord Hodge |
Preceded by The Lord Hope of Craighead |
Deputy President of the Supreme Court 2013–2017 |
Succeeded by The Lord Mance |
Preceded by The Lord Neuberger of Abbotsbury |
President of the Supreme Court 2017–present |
Incumbent |
Academic offices | ||
Preceded by Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother |
Visitor of Girton College, Cambridge 2004–present |
Incumbent |
Preceded by Sir Jeremy Morse |
Chancellor of the University of Bristol 2004–2016 |
Succeeded by Sir Paul Nurse |
Order of precedence in England and Wales | ||
Preceded by Andrea Leadsom as Lord President of the Council |
Ladies as President of the Supreme Court |
Succeeded by The Baroness Evans of Bowes Park as Lord Privy Seal |