Hazel Fox obituary | Law

For a lawyer who specialised within the arcane space of legislation often known as “state immunity”, Hazel Fox was a remarkably influential determine. Her chosen topic is more and more the reason for courtroom and political clashes. Fox, who has died aged 96, was one of many foremost authorities documenting the interplay between home and worldwide laws as aggrieved events try to sue overseas governments for alleged torture, homicide or monetary misdeeds.Her quantity The Regulation of State Immunity, printed in 2002 and already into its third version (up to date by her successor Prof Philippa Webb), analyses the instances by means of which the standard, absolute freedoms loved by states to interact in diplomatic relations have come beneath mounting strain to provide floor to different calls for in an ever extra interconnected world.Fox appeared in few instances. One was a 1988 excessive court docket libel listening to through which Mohamed Al Fayed, the previous proprietor of Harrods, sued a Gulf state ambassador for accusing him of impersonating an official with a view to acquire entry to the VIP lounge at Heathrow Airport and try to import “prohibited items”. The court docket dismissed the case on the grounds of inviolability of diplomatic paperwork.Fox was additionally concerned in a landmark torture declare introduced in opposition to the Kuwaiti authorities in 1996 by Sulaiman Al-Adsani, a British nationwide who had additionally been a member of the Kuwait air pressure. The judges in London dismissed the case resulting from state immunity.Within the case of Augusto Pinochet, the Chilean former dictator arrested in London in 1998 beneath an extradition warrant to face human rights abuse costs in Spain, Fox was reported to have been consulted by one of many UK judges. Her lucid, explanatory talks recorded for the United Nations Workplace of Authorized Affairs on state immunity are nonetheless obtainable on-line.Fox was a authorized blue blood: the stepdaughter of Lord Denning – the distinguished former grasp of the rolls – and spouse of an enchantment court docket decide. A sparky and dynamic presence, she moved in rarefied judicial and educational circles.She was born within the colonial hill station of Maymyo, close to Mandalay, in what was then British-administered Burma. Her father, Jack Stuart, was the engineer liable for dams, water management and bridges on the Irrawaddy River; her mom, Joan (nee Elliot-Taylor), cherished portray. Hazel was the second of their three youngsters.Within the mid-Thirties the household returned to England. Stuart suggested on water irrigation in Palestine and Persia. Hazel was despatched to board at Roedean, a women’ faculty close to Brighton. Together with the college she was evacuated to Keswick within the Lake District in the course of the second world battle. There she discovered of her father’s sudden demise in 1941, however continued classes – not seeing her mom or siblings till weeks afterwards on the finish of time period.At a college drinks celebration for fogeys, Joan Stuart met the additionally lately widowed excessive court docket decide, Tom Denning; the couple married in 1945. Hazel, who was head woman at Roedean, went to Somerville School, Oxford, the next yr to check fashionable languages. She didn’t benefit from the course and, with the assistance of her stepfather, switched to jurisprudence, graduating with a primary in 1949.Shifting to London, she joined chambers and in 1950 was known as to the bar, the place she practised for a number of years earlier than marrying, in 1954, Michael Fox, a barrister who later turned an enchantment court docket decide.She started to analysis, publishing Worldwide Arbitration: Regulation and Process in 1959 with the Overseas Workplace official John Simpson. Her language abilities had tilted her pursuits in direction of worldwide legislation and enabled her to learn overseas court docket studies.Within the Sixties, Fox joined a bunch exploring authorized data within the Overseas Workplace archives. Their investigations had been printed within the British Digest of Worldwide Regulation. Whereas mentioning 4 youngsters, she additionally served as a Justice of the Peace at Tower Hamlets juvenile court docket.In 1976, she returned to Oxford to show legislation, later changing into chair of the London Lease Evaluation Panel and the London Leasehold Valuation Tribunal. In 1982, she was appointed director of the British Institute of Worldwide and Comparative Regulation (BIICL).She revitalised the institute by means of fundraising and partnerships with business and different organisations, turning it into some of the influential UK boards for debate on worldwide legislation. She additionally pioneered authorized agreements that enabled prospecting firms to use oil and gasoline offshore in areas the place maritime boundary disputes remained unresolved.As normal editor of the Worldwide and Comparative Regulation Quarterly, she was famend as a troublesome editor, damning one guide for being “a woolly diatribe”. Described by mates as “doughty” and a “formidable authorized scholar”, she was the one member of a British authorized delegation to post-Soviet jap Europe to carry her bathing costume and demand on a dip within the Baltic.Her laughter, attraction and good humour impressed loyalty and affection. She named certainly one of her cats BIICL (pronounced “Bikle”) as a play on her skilled duties. At one level she was a candidate to change into the UK’s decide on the European court docket of human rights in Strasbourg.Fox returned to the bar in her 60s, showing on the worldwide court docket of justice in The Hague in a border dispute between Botswana and Namibia. She continued practising till her mid-80s.In 1993, she was appointed an honorary QC for her authorized scholarship, and in 2006 made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) for contributions to worldwide legislation and diplomacy.Outdoors legislation, she cherished gardening and studying. In later life she cared for her husband, whose remaining years had been marred by blindness and Alzheimer’s illness.She is survived by her youngsters, Matthew, Patrick, Jane and Charles, and 9 grandchildren. Hazel Mary Fox, barrister and authorized creator, born 22 October 1928; died 12 July 2025