Hibernian Law Medals 2022: Remarks by The Rt Hon. the Baroness Hale of Richmond
Pages | pp 180 - 182 |
Published date | 12 July 2022 |
Date | 12 July 2022 |
180
Remarks by
THE RT HON. THE BARONESS HALE OF RICHMOND*
ank you so much to the Hibernian Law Journal for bestowing this medal upon
me; to Ms Justice Mary Irvine for presiding over this event and for picking out one
of my dissents for special mention, showing that today’s dissent is tomorrow’s law;
and to Conor White for all the kind and attering things he has said about me. It is
humbling indeed to be joining the company of those whom you have honoured in
this way – the doyenne of women Chief Justices in the common law world, Beverley
McLachlin; your very own woman Chief Justice, Susan Denham; my predecessor
as President of the UK Supreme Court, David Neuberger; the former President
of Ireland, Mary McAleese; my good friend, former Supreme Court Justice and
Chair of your Law Reform Commission, Catherine McGuinness; and now another
former President of Ireland and great campaigner for justice, Mary Robinson.
What a list! ough David Neuberger must be feeling a little outnumbered … But
perhaps it is a good thing that he now knows what it has felt like for women like me
for most of our lives.
I went to a small girls’ high school in North Yorkshire, where the girls were
outnumbered more than two to one by the boys in the grammar school down
the road. at was unfairness number one in my life. I went on to Cambridge,
where the young women students were outnumbered around nine to one by the
young men students – another injustice of course, although it did have its distinct
advantages! I became a barrister in Manchester at a time when less than 6.0% of
practising barristers were women. I was the rst and only woman among ve Law
Commissioners. I was one of only six women amongst more than 100 men on the
High Court bench, only the second among the 35 or so Court of Appeal Judges,
and the rst and sadly only woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary. It took more than
13 years for them to nd another woman to join me on the top court in the United
Kingdom. What was I doing wrong, I wondered? You may have heard Madeleine
Albright’s expression that there is a special place in hell for women who do not help
other women and I did begin to wonder whether I might be going to that special
place. But thankfully, Lady Black saved me.
But the experience of being such a rare beast taught me a few lessons. e rst
was to carry on regardless – of the casual sexism there was in the early days, of
the consciousness of being dierent from my colleagues in more ways than one,
of the burdens of carrying the torch for women in the justice system. e second
was that we can be lucky to be in the right place at the right time – the time when
the powers-that-be realise that they need more women about the place and are on
* Lady Hale is a former President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom, having retired in
January 2020.
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