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Sonia Harris

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ms Justice Harris
Justice of the High Court
Assumed office
30 September 2024[1]
Appointed byCharles III
Personal details
BornSonia Ruth Harris
(1974-09-12) 12 September 1974 (age 51)
Coventry, UK
Alma materUniversity of Oxford
University of British Columbia

Dame Sonia Ruth Harris (born 12 September 1974) is a British High Court judge.[2][3]

Education

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Harris attended Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School.[4] In 1993, she received a BA degree in jurisprudence from Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with first-class honours.[5]

In 2009, she earned an LLM degree at the Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia.[6][7] Harris had visiting appointments at University of Victoria, Canada, and University of New South Wales, Australia, supported by a British Academy research grant.[8]

Career

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Academic

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Harris was called to the bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1998. From 1999 to 2006, she was a senior lecturer at Durham University.[9] From 2006 to 2014, she was reader and then professor of family law and policy at Birmingham School of Law.[10] Between 2012 and 2014, she was head of the University of Birmingham's Centre for Employability, Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER).[11] While at Birmingham, she was an honorary door tenant at St Philips Chambers.[12] In 2008, she became director of the Birmingham Law School LLM programme.[13] Between January and April 2010, she was a visiting scholar at Stockholm University.[14] In 2012, she was appointed special adviser to the House of Lords' Select Committee on Adoption.[15] She is an honorary professor at the University of Birmingham.[16]

Judge

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In 2010, Harris was appointed a deputy district judge. In 2014, she was appointed a district judge.[17] In 2018, she was appointed as circuit judge and was authorised to sit as a High Court judge in the Family Division. In 2019, she was appointed the designated family judge for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. In 2024, she was appointed senior circuit judge and designated family judge at Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre.[18] Harris was on the advisory group of the Children's Rights Judgement.[19] She is a member of the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges and the International Association of Women Judges.[20]

On 30 September 2024, Harris was appointed a judge of the Family Division of the High Court following several retirements.[3][21] She received the customary damehood in 2025.[22]

Publications

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Author

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  • Family Law: Text, Cases and Materials with Joanna Miles (2011) Pub. OUP ISBN 9780199563821
  • Aboriginal Child Welfare, Self-Government and the Rights of the Indigenous Children: Protecting the Vulnerable Under International Law (2012) Pub. Routledge ISBN 9781409419549

Contributor

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  • Accommodating Cultural Diversity ed. Stephen Tierney (2007) Pub. Routledge ISBN 9781317185918
  • Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act Ed. Helen Fenwick, Gavin Phillipson, Roger Masterman (2009) Pub. CUP ISBN 9781139466769
  • The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body Ed. Stephen W Smith, Ronan Deazley (2009) Pub. Routledge ISBN 9781138260320
  • Feminist Judgements: From Theory to Practice ed. Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley, Rosemary Hunter (2010) Pub. Bloomsbury ISBN 9781847317278
  • Fifty years of Family Law: Essays for Stephen Cretney Ed. Rebecca Probert, Chris Baron (2012) Pub. Cambridge ISBN 9781780680521
  • The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Commentary Ed. John Tobin (2019) Pub. OUP ISBN 9780191544170

Editor

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  • The Futures of Legal Education and the Legal Profession with Hilary Sommerlad (2015) Pub. Hart Publishing ISBN 9781849466554

Articles

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Harris has contributed articles to:

References

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  1. "Appointment of a High Court Judge: Harris". judiciary.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  2. "Appointment of a High Court Judge: Harris". judiciary.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  3. 1 2 "No. 64531". The London Gazette. 2 October 2024. p. 19258.
  4. "Sonia Harris-Short". inventaire.io. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  5. Alumni: Appointment of High Court Judge – website of Christ Church, Oxford
  6. Graduate Theses and Dissertations: The road back from hell? : First Nations, self-government, and the universal goal of child protection in Canada – website of the Peter A. Allard School of Law
  7. Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 1, February 2003 – website of Project Muse
  8. Fenwick, Helen (2007). Judicial reasoning under the UK human rights act. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. vii. ISBN 978-0-521-87633-9.
  9. "Institute of International Public Law". American Journal of International Law (Vol. 98 No. 2 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. April 2004. p. 8.
  10. "Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short". Holdsworth. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Spring 2009. p. 4.
  11. "Birmingham graduates earn junior lawyers award". kidderminstershuttle.co.uk. 5 July 2013. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  12. McGlynn, Clare; Rackley, Erika; Hunter, Rosemary (2010). Feminist Judgements: From Theory to Judgements. London, UK: Bloomsbury. p. 340. ISBN 9781847317278.
  13. "Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short". Holdsworth. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Spring 2009. p. 4.
  14. "Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short". Holdsworth. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Spring 2009. p. 4.
  15. Select committee on Adoption legislation (2013). Adoption: Pre-legislative Scrutiny, Report, 2nd Report of Session 2012–13,Volume 127 (Report). London, UK: The Stationery Office. p. 80. ISBN 9780108550409. "Specialist Advisor: Professor Sonia Harris-Short, Professor of Family Law and Policy, University of Birmingham
  16. "New appointments of High Court judges". judicialappointments.gov.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  17. "CEPLER Professor becomes Judge". Holdsworth. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Summer 2014. p. 7.
  18. "Senior Circuit Judge, Designated Family Judge Appointment: Harris". judiciary.uk. 14 March 2024. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  19. Stalford, Linda (2017). Rewriting Children's Rights Judgements. Oxford, UK: Hart. p. v. ISBN 9781782259251.
  20. "Events". ukawj.org. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  21. "Appointment of a High Court Judge: Harris". judiciary.uk. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  22. Press release: Knighthoods and Damehoods conferred: January 2025 – website gov.uk of the HM Government
  23. Sonia Harris-Short (2012). "Aboriginal Child WElfare Life". British Yearbook of International Law (Vol. 82 No. 1 ed.). Oxford, UK: OUP. p. 525.
  24. "Sonia Harris-Short". ssrn.com. Retrieved 20 July 2024.
  25. Sonia Harris-Short (December 2015). "Making and Breaking Family Life". Journal of Law and Society (Vol. 35 No. 4 ed.). Maryland, USA: Wiley. p. 594.
  26. Sonia Harris-Short (October 2003). "Judicial Approaches to the Human Rights Acts". The International and Comparative Law Quarterly (Vol. 52 No. 4 ed.). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press. p. 549.
  27. Sonia Harris-Short (April 2005). "influencing traits before birth". International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family (Vol. 19 No. 1 ed.). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. p. 130.
  28. "Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short". Holdsworth. Birmingham, UK: University of Birmingham. Spring 2009. p. 4.