News

UK’s top woman judge gives annual Human Rights Lecture

(21 October 2004)

Baroness Hale of Richmond, the UK’s first woman judge in the highest court in the land is to deliver the third annual Irvine Human Rights Lecture at the University of Durham.

Earlier this year Baroness Hale was appointed as the first ever woman to become a Lord of Appeal in the Ordinary in the House of Lords. She is one of the most eminent and distinguished lawyers in the field of family law.

The public lecture entitled “The Human Rights of Children”, organised by the University’s Human Rights Centre, will take place on Friday 29th October 2004 at 5.30 p.m. in Lecture Theatre ER 140, Elvet Riverside, Durham.

The lecture will be followed by a question and answer session. Organisers are expecting a good attendance and places will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Gavin Phillipson, Assistant Director of the Human Rights Centre, said: ” We are delighted to have secured Baroness Hale as this year’s speaker. The annual Irvine Human Rights Lecture is a major event in the programme at the Department of Law and Baroness Hale’s contribution to our work is eagerly anticipated.”

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For further information contact :
Gavin Phillipson, Assistant Director, Human Rights Centre, Department of Law, Tel 0191 334 2806. The Directors of the Centre are Professor Helen Fenwick and Professor Ian Leigh.

Media enquiries to : Tom Fennelly, University of Durham, Public Relations Office. Tel 0191 334 6078 e-mail : t.p.fennelly@durham.ac.uk.


Notes to Editors

1. The Human Rights Centre at Durham University was established in 2001 to co-ordinate the research interests and activities of members of the Law Department across the whole field of the law of human rights. The Centre has a particular concern with the methodology of human rights litigation, in terms of both manner of arguments and reasoning of judgments. The Centre addresses the human rights aspects of specific issues of public policy, as they arise, and seeks active engagement with the professions and the judiciary.
2. In November 2002 - The Lord Chancellor, The Rt Hon the Lord Irvine of Lairg delivered the inaugural "Irvine" lecture, "The Human Rights Act Two Years On : An Analysis".
3. In November 2003 the second Annual Human Rights Centre Lecture was given by John Wadham, former director of Liberty, and Deputy Chair of the Independent Police Complaints Commission. The lecture was entitled "Deaths in Custody, the role of the Article 2, European Convention on Human Rights.
4. The Law Department is situated in premises that once functioned as a court house in the heart of the historic centre of Durham. It is literally in the shadow of the world-famous Cathedral and Castle. The Law Library which is nearby on Palace Green has a large and airy reading room housing a comprehensive collection of Law materials. The University Library itself has been designated an official European Documentation Centre.
5. Following a career as both an academic and practicing lawyer, Brenda Hale became the first ever woman to become a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in 2004. She also has the distinction of having been the first woman and youngest person ever to be appointed to the Law Commission, where she oversaw a number of important reforms in family law. Her achievements as an academic include the publication of an influential book, Women and the Law (1984), which provided the first comprehensive survey of UK women’s rights at work, in the family and in the state.
6. Brenda Hale was educated at Richmond High School for Girls and later studied at Gorton College, Cambridge, where she read Law and graduated with a starred first and top of her class. After becoming assistant lecturer at Law in Manchester University, she was called to the Bar in 1969, topping the list in the finals for that year.
7. Working part-time as a barrister, she spent 18 years working mostly in academia, finally becoming Professor of Law at Manchester in 1986. Three years later she was made Queen’s Counsel and Recorder, and in 1994 became a judge in the Family Division of the High Court of Justice. In 1999, Baroness Hale became only the second woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court of Appeal, also entering the Privy Council at the same time. In 2003 it was announced that she was to become the first female Lord of Appeal in the Ordinary, and the following year she was on her appointment created a life peer as Baroness Hale of Richmond, of Easby in the County of North Yorkshire.