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

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

human rights Human rights are Morality, moral principles or Social norm, normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for ce ...

campaigner and

child welfare Child protection is the safeguarding of children from violence, exploitation, abuse, and neglect. Article 19 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child provides for the protection of children in and out of the home. One of the ways to e ...

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 it has more than ten million members and sup ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

office as their first employee in Scotland in 1991. She was a founding member of

Scottish Women's Aid Scottish Women's Aid is the lead domestic abuse organisation in Scotland. The charity plays a vital role coordinating, influencing and campaigning for effective responses to domestic abuse and supports a network of 36 Women's Aid services acro ...

in 1974, a member of the

Lothian Lothian (; sco, Lowden, Loudan, -en, -o(u)n; gd, Lodainn ) 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 Sco ...

Region Children’s Panel 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 is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

refugee A refugee, conventionally speaking, is a displaced person who has crossed national borders and who cannot or is unwilling to return home due to well-founded fear of persecution.

s in the 1930s. Ruth was born in Devon, where her father was stationed during the war. She studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at

Somerville College Somerville College, a constituent college of the University of Oxford in England, was founded in 1879 as Somerville Hall, one of its first two women's colleges. Among its alumnae have been Margaret Thatcher, Indira Gandhi, Dorothy Hodgkin, Ir ...

, Oxford and an MA in Philosophy at

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...

. 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 ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 1582 ...

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 superviser

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 Argumentati ...

, 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 judici ...

and a

Justice of the Peace A justice of the peace (JP) is a judicial officer of a lower or ''puisne'' court, elected or appointed by means of a commission ( letters patent) to keep the peace. In past centuries the term commissioner of the peace was often used with the sa ...

. 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.

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:

'Her life was driven by three passionate concerns: for justice, for children and for her family. To all these she brought a formidable intelligence, unflagging energy, extraordinary determination and, above all, generosity of spirit and loving kindness. These passions were to touch the lives of countless people'.

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 "Shami" 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 ...

in 2016; Sir Stephen Sedley (2015) Professor

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

(2013) Professor

Conor Gearty Conor A. Gearty (born November 1957) is the Professor of Human Rights Law at LSE Department of Law. From 2002 to 2009, he was Director of the Centre for the Study of Human Rights at the London School of Economics. His academic research focuses p ...

(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 British women lawyers Jewish women activists Women human rights activists 20th-century 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 feminists

Life

Works

Legacy

See also

References