Claire Palley

Last updated

Claire Palley, OBE
Born (1931-02-17) 17 February 1931 (age 92)
Education Durban Girls' College
Alma mater
Awards OBE
Scientific career
FieldsConstitutional and human rights law
Institutions

Claire Dorothea Taylor Palley, OBE (born 17 February 1931) is a South African academic and lawyer who specialises in constitutional and human rights law. She was the first woman to hold a Chair in Law at a United Kingdom university when she was appointed at Queen's University Belfast in 1970. [1] [2]

Contents

Life

Pulley was born in South Africa in 1931. She attended Durban Girls' College before she went on to study at the University of Cape Town and after graduating took up a post as a lecturer in the Law School. She lived with her then husband Ahrn Palley for a while in Southern Rhodesia. The Palleys moved to Rhodesia in the belief that it would offer a more liberal political regime than the apartheid system which then existed in South Africa. [3] From 1962-1970 Ahrn Palley was Rhodesia's only Independent MP representing the predominantly black constituency of Highfield. [3] As an authority on constitutional and human rights law, Claire was Constitutional Adviser to the African National Council at the constitutional talks on Rhodesia held in Geneva in 1976. [4]

Her books cover international relations and contemporary history, as seen from the standpoint of a constitutional, international and human rights lawyer, [5] minority rights [6]

Her pioneering appointment as the first British woman law professor in 1970 at Queen's University Belfast [3] was initially overlooked. It was not until the appointment of Gillian White at Manchester in 1975 (the second woman to become a law professor in the United Kingdom) that Claire Palley's appointment was mentioned in The Times . [1]

She was later Professor of Law and Master of Darwin College, University of Kent from 1973 to 1984 and became Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford in 1984. A hall of residence at St Anne's is named for her. [7]

In 1997 she was received an OBE for services to human rights. [3]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

An administrator in the constitutional practice of some countries in the Commonwealth is a person who fulfils a role similar to that of a governor or a governor-general.

The Annan Plan, also known as the Cyprus reunification plan, was a United Nations proposal to resolve the Cyprus dispute. The different parts of the proposal were based on the argumentation put forward by each party in meetings held under the auspices of the UN. The proposal was to restructure the Republic of Cyprus to become the "United Republic of Cyprus", a federation of two states. It was revised a number of times before it was put to the people of Cyprus in a 2004 referendum, and was supported by 65% of Turkish Cypriots, but only 24% of Greek Cypriots.

Justice Ruma Pal is a former judge of the Supreme Court of India. She retired on 3 June 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Politics of Rhodesia</span>

Rhodesia had limited democracy in the sense that it had the Westminster parliamentary system with multiple political parties contesting the seats in parliament, but as the voting was dominated by the White settler minority, and Black Africans only had a minority level of representation at that time, it was regarded internationally as a racist country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1962 Southern Rhodesian general election</span>

General elections were held in Southern Rhodesia on 14 December 1962. Voters elected 65 members of the Legislative Assembly. The election was notable for bringing to power the Rhodesian Front, initially under Winston Field, which set the colony on the course for its eventual Unilateral Declaration of Independence.

Ahrn Palley was an independent politician in Rhodesia who criticised the Smith administration and the Unilateral Declaration of Independence. Ian Smith described him as "one of the most able politicians this country has produced, and although our political philosophies did not coincide, we always respected one another and maintained friendly relations."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Merze Tate</span>

Vernie Merze Tate was a professor, scholar and expert on United States diplomacy. She was the first African-American graduate of Western Michigan Teachers College, first African-American woman to attend the University of Oxford, first African-American woman to earn a Ph.D. in government and international relations from Harvard University, as well as one of the first two female members to join the Department of History at Howard University.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1969 Rhodesian constitutional referendum</span>

A double referendum was held in Rhodesia on 20 June 1969, in which voters were asked whether they were in favour of or against a) the adoption of a republican form of government, and b) the proposals for a new Constitution, as set out in a white paper and published in a Gazette Extraordinary on 21 May 1969. Both proposals were approved. The country was subsequently declared a republic on 2 March 1970.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thio Li-ann</span> Singaporean law professor

Thio Li-ann is a Singaporean law professor at the National University of Singapore. She was educated at the University of Oxford, Harvard Law School and the University of Cambridge. In January 2007, she was appointed a Nominated Member of Parliament (NMP) in Singapore's 11th Parliament.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renate Weber</span> Romanian politician

Renate Weber is a Romanian lawyer and human rights activist who, in November 2007, was elected as Member of the European Parliament. She is the first Romanian appointed as Chief of an EU Election Observation Mission. Between 2004–2005 she was Advisor on constitutional and legislative matters to then President of Romania, Traian Băsescu. She previously served as the Romanian Ombudsman as well from June 2019 until mid June 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sandra Fredman</span>

Sandra Fredman FBA, KC (hon) is a professor of law in the Faculty of Law at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College, Oxford.

Satvinder Singh Juss FRSA, is a British academic and professor. He is professor of law at King's College London and a barrister-at-law in Gray's Inn. He has published widely on the subjects of migration and international human rights law.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frances Raday</span>

Frances Raday is a professor emerita of Elias Lieberman Chair in Labor Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Raday is currently a professor of law at the Haim Striks Law School at Colman College of Management Academic Studies, where she also acts as president of the Concord Center for Integration of International Law in Israel and as head of the school's graduate programs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Howard Morrison (barrister)</span> British judge (born 1949)

Sir Howard Andrew Clive Morrison, is a British lawyer and from 2011 to 2021 a Judge of the International Criminal Court based in The Hague, Netherlands. Currently UK advisor on war crimes to the Ukrainian Prosecutor General.

The "Harry" letters, written by Peter Benenson, founder of the international human rights group Amnesty International, detail the funding during 1966 of Amnesty's mission in the Rhodesian capital, Salisbury, by somebody or something referred to as "Harry", which was commonly interpreted as code for the British government, which was headed by British Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The letters were made public in March 1967 by Polly Toynbee, an Englishwoman who had worked for Amnesty in Salisbury as a 19-year-old gap year student in early 1966. Scandal resulted within both the British government and Amnesty, and Benenson left the group soon afterward.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Women in law</span> Involvement of women in the study and practice of law

Women in law describes the role played by women in the legal profession and related occupations, which includes lawyers, paralegals, prosecutors, judges, legal scholars, law professors and law school deans.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Queen of Rhodesia</span> Former unrecognised constitutional monarchy

Queen of Rhodesia was the title asserted for Elizabeth II as Rhodesia's constitutional head of state following the country's Unilateral Declaration of Independence from the United Kingdom. However, the position only existed under the Rhodesian constitution of 1965 and remained unrecognised elsewhere in the world. The British government, along with the United Nations and almost all governments, regarded the declaration of independence as an illegal act and nowhere else was the existence of the British monarch having separate status in Rhodesia accepted. With Rhodesia becoming a republic in 1970, the status or existence of the office ceased to be contestable.

Uzoamaka Linda Iwobi FLSW is a British-Nigerian solicitor and equalities practitioner. She is the former Specialist Policy Adviser on Equalities to the Welsh Government, an Honorary Fellow at the University of Wales Trinity St David and founder, secretary and former chief executive officer at Race Council Cymru. She is also Vice President of the Royal Welsh College of Music & Drama.

References

  1. 1 2 Cownie, Fiona (2015). "The United Kingdom's First Woman Law Professor: An Archerian Analysis". Journal of Law and Society. 42 (1): 127–149. doi:10.1111/j.1467-6478.2015.00701.x. S2CID   143524241.
  2. "Claire Palley – Women's Legal Landmarks". womenslegallandmarks.com. 8 August 2017. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  3. 1 2 3 4 "Claire Palley, the U.K.'s first female Law Professor | First 100 Years". first100years.org.uk. 24 April 2018. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  4. "Records of Professor Claire Palley - Archives Hub". archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk. Retrieved 9 March 2021.
  5. Palley, Claire (2005). An International relations debacle : the UN secretary-general's mission of good offices in Cyprus, 1999-2004. Oxford: Hart Pub. ISBN   1-84113-578-X. OCLC   60538091.
  6. Palley, Claire (1978). Constitutional law and minorities. Minority Rights Group. London. ISBN   0-903114-49-6. OCLC   1107166123.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  7. "Claire Palley". St Anne's College, Oxford. Retrieved 10 March 2021.
Academic offices
Preceded by Principal of St Anne's College, Oxford
1984—1991
Succeeded by