Lady Hazel Cosgrove CBE QC
First woman in Scotland to become a judge and a member of the Inner House of the Court of Session
She was born Hazel Aronson in Glasgow, educated at Glasgow High School for Girls and studied law at Glasgow University, gaining an LL.B in 1966. She was the first person in her family to become a lawyer. She became a member of the Faculty of Advocates in 1968 and worked as one until 1979. When some members of the legal profession heard that she wanted to become an advocate they showed disapproval and one told her that, theBar is no place for a woman! She was the first woman to become a Sheriff in Glasgow and worked there from 1979-1983 and then in Lothian and Borders from 1983-1996.
Lady Aronson, as she was then known, was the first woman in Scotland to be appointed a judge and worked as a temporary judge for the Court of Session and High Court from 1992-1996. She only took her husband’s name for her title when her position was made permanent in 1996. Interestingly, it was the judiciary that preferred the use of her maiden name and it was she who wished it otherwise. In that year she was also the first woman to be appointed a Senator of the College of Justice and a Judge of Scotland’s Supreme Courts.
In 2002 Lady Cosgrove was one of seven judges who rewrote the law of rape in Scotland, eliminating force as a necessary part of the crime and describing it as: The living tree of the law not only growing but shedding dead wood as it does so.
In 2003 she was the first woman to be appointed to the Inner House of the Court of Session and sworn into Her Majesty’s Privy Council. She has been Chairman of the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland and for the Expert Panel on Sex Offending, and Depute Chairman for the Boundaries Commission for Scotland. In 2004 she was awarded a CBE for her services to the criminal justice system. She retired in 2006.
Lady Cosgrove has always encouraged other women to follow in her footsteps and has advanced equality for women through her own achievements.
Morag Liebert
Sources:
Roy, Christopher. Who’s Who in Scotland. 2009. Ayr: Carrick Media, 2009
Cunningham, Jennifer. The new she who must be obeyed. The Herald. 18 January 2003
