Lady Rose visited Cambridge on 3rd February 2025 at Newnham College, as a guest on the Cambridge University Law Society (CULS) Speaker programme. She spoke to CULS about her career, the landmark decisions she has contributed to since her appointment to the Supreme Court in 2021, and the functioning and evolving role of the Supreme Court.

Lady Rose was called to the Bar by Gray's Inn in 1984. She practised as a barrister for ten years before joining the Government Legal Service. She served in HM Treasury, the Ministry of Defence and the Office of Counsel to the Speaker of the House of Commons. In 2006 she was appointed to her first judicial role as a fee-paid Chairman of the Competition Appeal Tribunal. She was appointed to further tribunal posts and became a Recorder in the Crown Court, Criminal jurisdiction in 2010. In May 2013 Dame Vivien was sworn in as a High Court Judge in the Chancery Division where she sat for over five years. She was appointed to the Court of Appeal in January 2019 and to the Supreme Court in April 2021.

In her role as a Justice of the Supreme Court, Lady Rose has been involved in a number of important cases across the range of the Court’s work from public law challenges concerning human rights and Scottish devolution issues, to tax cases and common law contract and tort cases.

Our introductory speakers in this episode are Joyce Mau (CULS President 2024-2025) and Kai Zhen Tek (CULS Speakers Secretary 2024-2025), who also organised the event.

The following cases are mentioned in this talk:

• Hassam and Another v Rabot and Another [2024] UKSC 11
• Independent Workers Union of Great Britain v Central Arbitration Committee and Another [2023] UKSC 43
• R (on the application of O v Secretary of State for the Home Department [2022] UKSC 3
• In the matter of an application by Rosaleen Dalton for Judicial Review (Northern Ireland) [2023] UKSC 36
• McCulloch v Forth Valley Health Board [2023] UKSC 26
• R (on the application of Elan-Cane) (Art 8 male/female passports) [2021] UKSC 56
• Reference by the Lord Advocate of devolution issues under paragraph 34 of Schedule 6 to the Scotland Act 1998 (the “indyref2” case) [2022] UKSC 31
• Reference by the Attorney General for Northern Ireland -Abortion Services (Safe Access Zones) (Northern Ireland) Bill [2022] UKSC 32

This episode was edited by Jiwon Heo (CULS Publicity Secretary 2024-2025).