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

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She went to Bolton-on-Swale primary school and then Richmond High School for Girls, but at 13, her father died suddenly. Hale loved teaching. “It’s very exciting, trying to educate bright, articulate, mainly ambitious young people in your subject, getting them to be as fired up about it as you are, but to understand it properly, so they are not going off with an idealism that doesn’t fit, teaching them how to use the law to achieve results.” She was also, at this time, the author of books on the law as it related to mental health and families and children, which is part of what recommended her later as an expert in social welfare law, and saw her appointed to the Council on Tribunals. Sitting on mental health review tribunals reinforced in Hale the questioning nature that had distinguished her as an academic. “It was difficult to believe,” she writes in her forthcoming memoir, Spider Woman, “that the mild-mannered, middle-aged patient had done the terrible things that had landed him in a secure psychiatric hospital. But judging soon teaches you that things are not always as they seem.” London School of Economics (21 February 2018). "LSE honorary degrees". Archived from the original on 16 July 2019 . Retrieved 6 November 2019. You used to have to be very careful, even guarded, in interviews. Do you feel more able to speak freely since your retirement from the supreme court?

ICLR Book review: The UK Supreme Court Yearbook, Vol 10 - ICLR

Personally I found Lady Hale and her life very interesting indeed. Overall the book acts as a very interesting insight into both legal and social changes over more than half a century. My feeling is that people with an interest in society generally and the law in particular will be the ones who find this book most appealing. Others should find it worthwhile however the focus on the law and particular cases might make it less accessible to some. 3.5/5 A highly recommended read for those who are interested in law, skip past the first few chapters if you aren't a history buff.In all of this Lady Hale's sheer humanity does come through in addition to her feminist position. She is a remarkable woman who has achieved a great deal even if she has been left frustrated at times (largely by male colleagues!). Equality broadly is a cornerstone of her belief as I read it. She bristles when any arguments are made that ignore this. Given how high she has risen while holding tightly to her principles it is clear that many people who may not agree with her still respect her. She certainly finds some of the arcane processes and traditions not entirely to her taste. However she does seem to like some of the "gowns" that are part of the traditions!

Lady Hale: Five things you might not know about the Supreme Lady Hale: Five things you might not know about the Supreme

She received an Honorary Fellowship from Bristol University in July 2017. An Honorary Fellowship is the highest honour the university can bestow. [35] Siddique, Haroon (21 July 2017). "Brenda Hale appointed as UK supreme court's first female president". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 11 May 2020 . Retrieved 7 April 2020. On 27 June 2011, Lady Hale gave a lecture in memory of Sir Henry Hodge, "Equal Access to Justice in the Big Society" in which she explains the benefits of an inquisitorial Tribunal system over adversarial proceedings. [28]Rozenberg, Joshua (3 February 2020). "An insider's account of the 'Brenda agenda' ". Archived from the original on 3 February 2020. Gibb, Frances (30 April 2018). "Baroness Hale to lay down the law on MasterChef". The Times. ISSN 0140-0460. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018 . Retrieved 5 April 2018. a b c Stokel-Walker, Chris (24 September 2019). "Lady Hale, the gently determined president of the Supreme Court that overruled Boris Johnson". New Statesman . Retrieved 24 September 2019. Hale may not, unlike Marvel Comics’ Spider-Woman, be able to kill her enemies with “venom blasts” from her hands, though you gather that from time to time men have been somewhat afraid of her. But the two do have a few things in common, among them superhuman strength, incredible stamina, and a resistance to certain poisons (down the years, Hale has proved herself, if not oblivious to the toxin of sexism, then able to survive, and even to thrive, in the face of it). Also like her namesake, she has always seen herself as an outsider. Growing up in Scorton in North Yorkshire, where her father was the head of the boys’ grammar school, she was both of the village, and slightly apart from it, marked out by her cleverness (“a swot and a goody-goody”). She was 13, she thinks, when some useful iron entered her soul. Her father having died suddenly, her mother had no choice but to dust herself down and begin her own teaching career all over again. Role models, Hale has always believed, are extremely important in life. On 10 September 2015, Hale 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?". [29]