The Guardian (UK) write….
Lady Hale, the supreme court’s first female president, has attained greater public prominence than any contemporary judge thanks to Brexit legal battles, the formidable clarity of her rulings and attention-grabbing brooches. Now her profile is set to rise further as she stars in a children’s book.
Equal to Everything – Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court, published on Thursday, celebrates the journey of a young girl from Richmond in North Yorkshire, who travels to the highest court of the UK in Westminster.
Written in rhyming couplets and engagingly illustrated, the story goes on sale at a moment when the role of the supreme court is moving closer to centre stage in UK politics – earning it plaudits for impartiality but criticism for its judgments from, among others, the prime minister, Boris Johnson.
Brenda Hale, 74, has been president of the court – which this year marks its 10th anniversary – since 2017. A champion of improving diversity in the legal profession, she will stand down in January when she reaches the statutory date for retirement from the bench.
Before then, she may yet have to adjudicate on further Brexit-related appeals and steer the court through highly politicised legal disputes. Challenges over the Benn act – which requires Johnson to seek an extension to the UK’s EU membership in the event of no deal – and whether a no-deal Brexit would breach the Good Friday agreement could be heard in the coming weeks.
The inspiration for Equal to Everything, however, dates back to early last year when Dr Laura Janes, the chair of the Legal Action Group (LAG) charity, was reading an American children’s book about the acclaimed US supreme court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg to her daughter. “Why don’t we have one?” her daughter asked.
So Janes decided to commission such a work. “As an access to justice charity, for over 45 years LAG has focused on high-level legal information to ensure that people get the best out of the law,” she explained.
“While children love fairness, hearing about rules and what happens when they are broken, the law has remained distant, even mysterious, to children – the preserve of mainly posh adult men in strange costumes.
“This book shows children that the law belongs to everybody and is within their reach, wherever they have started out.’”
The story, written by the Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch, who is a former barrister, and illustrated by Henny Beaumont, follows a young girl, Ama, from Hale’s hometown of Richmond on a school trip to the supreme court in London, where they are shown around by the court president.
Hale, a long-time supporter of LAG and access to justice charities, cooperated with the project. On Thursday morning, she read extracts of the book to local schoolchildren who were visiting the court and answered their questions – including whether it was fair to make them eat peas in school lunches.
An initial 5,000 copies were printed but early orders from the legal community meant reprints were needed before the publication date.
Hirsch said: “Not only does Lady Hale stand out as an exceptional judicial figure for our times, but she has iconic status for women and young girls who aspire to break barriers by reaching the very top of their chosen field too. My hope for this book is that it will demystify both the path she has taken and the vitally important constitutional role she occupies, to educate and inspire the next generation.”
By coincidence, Equal to Everything was launched on the day the Ministry of Justice acknowledged the importance of legal education – releasing a series of leaflets illustrated with hand-drawn cartoons to guide defendants through the maze of the criminal justice system.
Source: https://www.theguardian.com/law/2019/oct/10/supreme-court-lady-hale-becomes-star-childrens-book
