A Review of Lady Hale’s autobiography.
Like many who have studied Law, I come to Lady Hale’s autobiography with trepidation. Will the pithy clarity of the judgements we know and love carry the style, or will she rapidly descend into purple prose? I remember vividly reading Jonny Wilkinson’s ‘Lions and Falcons’, then not being quite as able to see his goal kicking precision (the guy was a workaholic to the point of self-abuse) in the same adoring light – and the prose was dull. Would ‘Spider Woman’ ruin my adulation of Lady Hale?
Good news (I will cut to the chase here), no it doesn’t. Even Cherie Blair has a witticism I hadn’t expected (LH follows Parker’s law) and whilst there are a few moments where some self doubt might be more personable, you don’t get to be the president of the Supreme Court by having self doubt, so it comes with the package. Lady Hale is NOT the ‘woman in a meeting.’
In so many ways, Lady Hale is a triumph of the 11+, a time when it was okay to differentiate the academically able from the more practically able. It’s a fact that it created social mobility for many. Lady Hale would like to see more diversity on the bench and in legal life in general. Maybe it is time to give those grammar schools another thought so the academically gifted from all walks of life might get a shot at it. (As someone who suffered extreme bullying in a sink comprehensive on the grounds that clever was not to be tolerated, I admit to bias here). She certainly was, as she puts it ‘a speccy swot’, but luckily for us her headmistress thought she wasn’t clever enough for history and gave encouragement towards law. The majority of her life before law is delightfully unaware of the various issues many young people today are consumed with. Perhaps the simplicity of measuring things by their merits helps, but there is also a ‘keep calm and carry on’ spirit pressing forward, not dispassionately, but with the assumption life has an onwards trajectory. Many difficult personal moments: the death of her father, divorce, post-natal complications are all given space only as minor anecdotes. Lady Hale is not going to dwell on anything that detracts from the achievements.
And achievements there are many. Not just the first woman to lead the Supreme Court, but the first female Law Lord (Lord of Appeal in Ordinary). She was the first Law Commissioner – that is the body that looks at whether law should be reformed. That’s before she found more ‘media fame’ over the proroguing of parliament judgement in 2019. One of the things I loved about her book was the way she seamlessly included constitutional law (which was always a favourite of mine. Part of my revision was to watch ‘West Wing’ and exclaim to housemates how different the US constitution was…. Ah, those days.) and how precedent is used. I think it is an extremely useful autobiography for anyone thinking about public law because it engages with these questions. The passages on the separation of powers are particularly interesting. For the non-law people, this is still a perfectly straightforward read, so don’t be shy.
I had forgotten about Keir Starmer’s role in making sure the ‘duckgate’ false expenses claims were prosecuted. But in the main, this is a sweep through the reforms and in particular how these have impacted women with children, and how society and law have changed in their approach to domestic abuse. Whilst the book blurb claims ‘anyone with similar beginnings can too’ (sorry, not true Vintage) it is an inspiring story about how much has changed and how someone without huge amounts of privilege in early life was part of that.
She does talk about the famous brooches and her serendipitous choice to wear the spider for the proroguing judgement, but really it is as a real life Peter Parker that I hope Lady Hale will be remembered: fighting off the bad guys and protecting the vulnerable – the amazing Spiderwoman.
