- Lady Hale, especially in her career in the Supreme Court, has done what she can to recognise children’s rights in litigation about them.
Brenda Hale’s greatest achievement as a law reformer is the part she played in developing the ideas behind, and then the legislative achievement of, the Children Act 1989. The extent to which the Act has developed the courts’ duties of listening to children has been disappointing (see ‘Happy anniversary?’ 169 NLJ 7866, p9). That is less the fault of the statutory scheme than of the family courts by which it has been operated. No fault attaches to Mrs Justice, then Lady Justice, and now Lady Hale. Her part in the jurisprudence arising from children’s rights and the Act, which has paralleled her judicial career—she was appointed a High Court judge in 1994—is reviewed in this article.
The 1980s was rich in extra-statutory child law reform pioneered by Lord Scarman (Re W (A Minor) (Wardship: Jurisdiction) [1985]
