Baroness Hale calls for increased diversity in out of touch judiciary
updated on 02 January 2019
Baroness Hale, the president of the supreme court, has spoken about the lack of diversity in the judiciary, emphasising the importance of improved gender balance, and judges from different ethnicities and social backgrounds reflected in court, in an interview with the Guardian.
In the interview to mark one hundred years since the Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919 which paved the way for women to first become lawyers, Lady Hale spoke about the gender imbalance on the UK’s Supreme Court (there are currently three women on the 12-seat panel of judges) and the work to be done on reducing the gender pay gap at the Bar.
“[Women] are just waking up to the fact that they are not being paid as much. I have heard terrible stories about even successful women barristers being offered out by their [chamber] clerks at less than their male equivalents. That’s an area where there’s still work to do,” she said.
The public should “look at the judges and say, ‘They are our judges’,” rather than seeing them as “beings from another planet”, said Hale. She hoped that the judiciary would attract “more people who have had less privileged lives”, explaining that “we are all products of our background and our experiences, so the greater the diversity, the better.”
Hale said that although there is already a strong presence of ethnic minority judges in tribunals, county courts and among district judges, more should be done to “improve diversity in the higher echelons” and transfer judges from other courts. She called for swifter progress in promoting those from minority ethnic backgrounds.
Lady Hale also discussed in the interview amending the retirement ages of judges from 70 to 75, and the Brexit Article 50 case which she described as one of her proudest moments. Hale likened the Miller case to a “17th Century battle between Parliament and the king”. She commented that she would like to hear more cases outside of London in the North of England and the West Country.
