Selden’s Sister’s First Annual Lecture - one year on

One year on from our first annual lecture, we reflect on the importance of talking about women in legal history.

A year ago, we hosted our first annual lecture at the University of Liverpool. The Rt Hon Baroness Hale of Richmond traced the evolution of mothers’ rights from the reforming Custody of Infants Act 1839 (Talfourd’s Act). That Act merely allowed mothers to petition the court for custody of their children under seven and granted them the opportunity to petition for access to their older children. She considered the wider and more child focused legislation of the late 19th Century and the growing recognition of mothers’ rights from then to the major reforming Acts of the 20th Century, the Guardianship of Infants Act 1925 and the Guardianship Act 1972, and asked what equal parental ‘rights and authority’ mean today.

She needs no introduction: The Rt Hon Baroness Hale of Richmond, Brenda Hale, Baroness Hale of Richmond, was the President of the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom until 2020. In 2004 she became the first woman Lord of Appeal in Ordinary in the House of Lords. Baroness Hale became the first woman Justice of the Supreme Court in 2009. She was appointed Deputy President of the Supreme Court in 2013, and then President in 2017. Prior to this, she had a varied career as an academic lawyer, law reformer, and judge. Over the course of her career Baroness Hale has made a leading contribution to family law and reform. This invaluable contribution has often focussed on the inequalities to be found within the law and outcomes before the courts for women. She has done much to ensure that the law and the courts focus on the welfare and voices of women and children.

Why did we ask Lady Hale to give our first annual lecture? Obviously, she is a well-known figure, and we wanted to start with a bang. But Lady Hale is also an incredibly generous person: at the lecture, she spent a long time chatting to undergraduate students, signing copies of her memoir, and was all round a friendly and encouraging figure. That is exactly the energy Selden’s Sister love to see at our events. The whole goal of the project is to bring people in who might not otherwise engage with legal history - because it’s not for them, because they think it doesn’t cover things they’re interested in, or they just don’t know where to start! That extends, here, to Lady Hale herself: as she noted, she does not self-identify as a legal historian - despite her wide-ranging academic work. We were quite happy, though, to claim her as one of our own: legal history can be many things, and that includes the history of quite recent cases. In fact, we would be quite happy to talk about Lady Hale herself as a part of legal history, given the many impressive things she has achieved in her career (and indeed, some people have written about her life and work in that vein already). We want legal history to be lively, innovative, engaging, wide-ranging, and diverse, because when those things are true, we all benefit!

As we plan future lectures, we want to showcase a wide range of work by and on women in legal history. We want to explore the topics that the core syllabus in our law schools might not have much time for; showcase exciting work; and share the ideas of people who have interesting things to say. That might mean work focused on feminism and/or gender, but it is so much bigger than that. Seeing people who like like us matters, especially as undergraduates and postgraduates, and we want to give students the chance to engage with people across a range of subject areas and backgrounds. After the success of our first Annual Lecture, we are really excited to plan future events and share them with you.

Unfortunately, due to issues with the venue, we have had to cancel the Annual Lecture for November 2025 with former judge Victoria McCloud. We are looking into alternative arrangements for the new calendar year.

Our essay prize remains open to undergraduates until 1 November 2025.

If you would like to contribute to this blog, please email seldenssister@gmail.com. We welcome discussions of work, events, or ideas on the broad theme of women in legal history.