Ruth Margaret Adler née Oppenheimer (1 October 1944 – 18 February 1994) was a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideology, ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social gender equality, equality of the sexes. Feminism holds the position that modern soci ...

human rights Human rights are universally recognized Morality, moral principles or Social norm, norms that establish standards of human behavior and are often protected by both Municipal law, national and international laws. These rights are considered ...

campaigner and

child welfare Child protection (also called child welfare) is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, abandonment, and neglect. It involves identifying signs of potential harm. This includes responding to allegations or suspicions ...

advocate. She was founder of

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

office as their first employee in Scotland in 1991. She was a founding member of Scottish Women's Aid in 1974, a member of the

Lothian Lothian (; ; ) is a region of the Scottish Lowlands, lying between the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and the Lammermuir Hills and the Moorfoot Hills. The principal settlement is the Scottish capital, Edinburgh, while other signific ...

Region

Children's Panel A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

and she helped to establish the Scottish Child Law Centre.

Life

Ruth's parents Charlotte and Rudolf Oppenheimer came from

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * Great Britain, a large island comprising the countries of England, Scotland and Wales * The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, a sovereign state in Europe comprising Great Britain and the north-eas ...

refugee A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

s in the 1930s. Ruth was born in Devon, where her father was stationed during the war. Her education began at North London Collegiate School. She studied

Philosophy, Politics and Economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

Somerville College Somerville College is a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. It was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. It began admitting men in 1994. The college's liberal tone derives from its f ...

, Oxford and an MA in philosophy at

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

. She moved to Scotland in the 1960s with her husband and children and became a part-time tutor in the Philosophy Department of

Edinburgh University The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the town council under the authority of a royal charter from King James VI in 1582 and offi ...

for many years before gaining a further PhD in Law presenting the thesis Rights, interests and reasoning in juvenile justice. She was influenced by her supervisor

Neil MacCormick Sir Donald Neil MacCormick (27 May 1941 – 5 April 2009) was a Scottish legal philosopher and politician. He was Regius Professor of Public Law and the Law of Nature and Nations at the University of Edinburgh from 1972 until 2008. He was a ...

. Adler was bilingual in English and German and, after obtaining her PhD, she and MacCormick collaborated in translating a number of books by leading Czech (Ota Weinberger) and German (

Robert Alexy Robert Alexy (born 9 September 1945 in Oldenburg, Germany) is a jurist and a legal philosopher. Alexy studied law and philosophy at the University of Göttingen. He received his J.D. in 1976 with the dissertation ''A Theory of Legal Argumentat ...

, Guenter Teubner) legal philosophers from German into English. While working at The Scottish Child Law Centre she helped to create the first comprehensive database of child law in Scotland. She was a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judi ...

and a Justice of the Peace. From 1987 to 1991 she was responsible for investigating complaints against solicitors as Assistant to the Lay Observer for Scotland. As a prominent member of the Edinburgh Jewish community she was editor of the ''Edinburgh Star''. and Secretary and President (1998) of the Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society. Adler founded the Scottish office of

in 1991. She worked there until a few days before her death from cancer in 1994, when she was only 49 years old.

Works

The theme of her thesis (1983) is legal intervention in the lives of children. It was published as a book in 1985 ''Taking Juvenile Justice Seriously''.

Legacy

Adler's obituary in ''The Independent'' describes her three passionate concerns: There is a plaque dedicated to Ruth Adler in the garden of University of Edinburgh Day Nursery. University of Edinburgh School of Law sponsor an annual Ruth Adler Memorial Lecture on Human Rights. Prominent speakers include

Shami Chakrabarti Sharmishta Chakrabarti, Baroness Chakrabarti (born 16 June 1969) is a British politician, barrister, and human rights activist. A member of the Labour Party, she served as the director of Liberty, a major advocacy group which promotes civil l ...

in 2016; Sir Stephen Sedley (2015) Professor

Christopher McCrudden Christopher is the English version of a Europe-wide name derived from the Greek name Χριστόφορος (''Christophoros'' or '' Christoforos''). The constituent parts are Χριστός (''Christós''), "Christ" or "Anointed", and φέρει ...

(2013) Professor

Conor Gearty Conor A. Gearty KC (Hon), (born November 1957) is the Professor of Human Rights Law in the faculty of law at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). From 2002 to 2009, he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rig ...

(2009). The Ruth Adler prize is awarded annually to the best student in the Ordinary course Critical Legal Thinking.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Adler, Ruth 1944 births 1994 deaths Alumni of Somerville College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Edinburgh British feminists Jewish women activists British women human rights activists 20th-century Scottish women lawyers Scottish justices of the peace Lawyers from Devon Jewish British activists British people of German-Jewish descent Alumni of the University of London Amnesty International people Jewish human rights activists Jewish British feminists

Life

Works

Legacy

See also

References