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

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Lady Hale on judgments and jewellery: ‘Maybe I should have Lady Hale on judgments and jewellery: ‘Maybe I should have

Wise, warm and inspiring, Spider Woman tells the story of how a self-professed ‘girly swot’ found that she could overcome the odds stacked against her, as well as showing how the law shapes our world and supports us in crisis.In the mind of the public, that now-famous brooch, a present from her husband, surely did good work in underlining the fact that, yes, it is indeed possible for a woman to rise through the ranks to one of the most important judicial roles in the land (she was then the supreme court’s president). It’s an inspiring account of how one remarkable and determined woman made it to the top of her profession at a time when the odds were stacked against her. Though not entirely focused on it, the article discusses the case alongside other cases of constitutional significance. One of them needed a secure job if they wanted to have a family, which they did – they had a daughter, Julia, in 1973. President of Supreme Court to Consider Moral Courage in the Law in Worcester Lecture - University Of Worcester" .

Spider Woman by Lady Hale | Waterstones

Yet that dramatic moment was merely the pinnacle of a career throughout which she was hailed as a pioneering reformer. The story takes her from that little school in Yorkshire to the big university in Cambridge, to a career at the Bar which soon gave way to the lure of academic life, then a stint as the youngest ever (and first woman) Law Commissioner, before embarking on a judicial career that went, as it were, from High to Mighty. As 'a little girl from a little school in a little village in North Yorkshire', she only went into the law because her headteacher told her she wasn't clever enough to study history. Other people said she came from an ordinary background, but it should be noted that her family were very well educated with Oxbridge graduates. They note, for example, that “Judgments are becoming noticeably shorter over time, with proportionally fewer divided judgments and more unanimous judgments.By the time they got to spidergate, she was one of 11 justices and felt a deal of safety in numbers. It is the belief that women are equal to men in dignity and in rights and that women do have different experiences of life to men and those experiences should be as important in developing, applying and interpreting the law as are the experiences of men,” she says. Hale was not one of the three judges, but she expected justice secretary Liz Truss instantly to defend them, and was shocked when the minister failed to do so. She appeared in 2018's semi-final, which celebrated 100 years since women first got the right to vote, alongside Dr Helen Pankhurst, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst, one of the leading figures in the fight for women's suffrage. Scorton had had a bomber airfield and we were close to Catterick, and there were quite a few of the people living in Nissen huts who had been bombed out of Teesside,” she says.

Spider Woman, by Lady Hale - Penguin Books UK

She studied law at Cambridge in the 60s, spurred in this direction by a passion for the constitutional battles of the 17th century. She served as a Law Lord until 2009 when she, along with the other Law Lords, transferred to the new Supreme Court as a result of the Constitutional Reform Act 2005. Lady Hale is an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and for the causes she has championed. One of these, former barrister Afua Hirsch, has turned her into the heroine of a children’s book, Equal to Everything: Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court.On 12 January 2004 She was given a Life Peerage upon being appointed as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. This, more than any single constitutional issue, is her driving motivation, although it is so obvious to her that she rarely spells it out: to make the law accessible and responsive to people. Hale’s 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? both an orthodox application of basic principles of our constitutional law and a remarkable assertion of judicial independence to protect our constitution from an unprecedented – at least in modern times – abuse of prime ministerial power.