Sonia Harris

Harris attended Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School.{{cite web |url=https://inventaire.io/entity/wd:Q102367207?lang=sv |title=Sonia Harris-Short |author= |website= inventaire.io |access-date=2024-07-20}} In 1993, she received a BA law degree in jurisprudence from Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with first-class honours.[https://chchconnections.org/news/alumni/204/204-APPOINTMENT-OF-HIGH-COURT-JUDGE Alumni: Appointment of High Court Judge] - website of Christ Church, Oxford In 2009, she subsequently earned an LLM degree at the Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia.[https://commons.allard.ubc.ca/theses/137/ Graduate Theses and Dissertations: The road back from hell? : First Nations, self-government, and the universal goal of child protection in Canada] - website of the Peter A. Allard School of Law[https://muse.jhu.edu/pub/1/article/38762 Human Rights Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 1, February 2003] - website of Project Muse Harris had a visiting appointment at University of Victoria, Canada and University of New South Wales, Australia supported by a British Academy research grant.{{cite book |date=2007 |last=Fenwick |first=Helen |title=Judicial reasoning under the UK human rights act |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge, UK |page=vii |isbn= 978-0-521-87633-9 }}

Harris was called to the bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1998. From 1999 to 2006 she was a senior lecturer at Durham University.{{cite magazine |date=April 2004 |author= |title=Institute of International Public Law |magazine=American Journal of International Law |location=Cambridge, UK |edition=Vol. 98 No. 2 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=8}} From 2006 to 2014 she was Reader and then Professor of Family Law and Policy at Birmingham School of Law.{{cite magazine |date=Spring 2009 |author= |title=Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short |magazine=Holdsworth |location=Birmingham, UK |publisher=University of Birmingham |page=4}} Between 2012 and 2014 she was head of Birmingham University's Centre for Employability, Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER).{{cite web |url=https://www.kidderminstershuttle.co.uk/news/business_daily/10518596.birmingham-graduates-earn-junior-lawyers-award/ |title=Birmingham graduates earn junior lawyers award |website= kidderminstershuttle.co.uk |date= 2013-07-05 |access-date=2024-07-20}} While at Birmingham she was an Honorary Door Tenant at St Philips Chambers.{{cite book |date=2010 |last1=McGlynn |first1=Clare |last2=Rackley

|first2=Erika |last3=Hunter |first3=Rosemary |title=Feminist Judgements: From Theory to Judgements |publisher=Bloomsbury |location=London, UK |page=340 |isbn= 9781847317278}} In 2008 she became director of the Birmingham Law School LLM Programme.{{cite magazine |date=Spring 2009 |author= |title=Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short |magazine=Holdsworth |location=Birmingham, UK |publisher=University of Birmingham |page=4}} Between January and April 2010, she was a visiting scholar at the Stockholm University.{{cite magazine |date=Spring 2009 |author= |title=Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short |magazine=Holdsworth |location=Birmingham, UK |publisher=University of Birmingham |page=4}} In 2012 she was appointed special advisor to the House of Lords' Select Committee on Adoption.{{cite report |author=Select committee on Adoption legislation |date=2013 |title=Adoption: Pre-legislative Scrutiny, Report, 2nd Report of Session 2012-13,Volume 127 |publisher=The Stationery Office |page=80 |quote="Specialist Advisor: Professor Sonia Harris-Short, Professor of Family Law and Policy, University of Birmingham |location=London, UK|isbn=9780108550409}} She is an honorary Professor at Birmingham University.{{cite web |url=https://judicialappointments.gov.uk/new-appointments-of-high-court-judges/ |title=New appointments of High Court judges |author= |website= judicialappointments.gov.uk |access-date=2024-07-20}}

In 2010 Harris was appointed as a Deputy District Judge. In 2014 she was appointed as District Judge.{{cite magazine |date=Summer 2014 |author= |title=CEPLER Professor becomes Judge |magazine=Holdsworth |location=Birmingham, UK |publisher=University of Birmingham |page=7}} In 2018 she was appointed as Circuit Judge and was authorised to sit as a High Court Judge in the Family Division. In 2019 she was appointed the designated family judge for Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire. In 2024 she was appointed Senior Circuit Judge and designated family judge at Wolverhampton Combined Court Centre.{{cite web |url=https://www.judiciary.uk/appointments-and-retirements/senior-circuit-judge-designated-family-judge-appointment-harris/ |title=Senior Circuit Judge, Designated Family Judge Appointment: Harris |author= |website= judiciary.uk |date=14 March 2024 |access-date=2024-07-20}}

Harris was on the advisory group of the Children's Rights Judgement.{{cite book |date=2017 |last=Stalford |first=Linda |title=Rewriting Children's Rights Judgements |publisher=Hart |location=Oxford, UK |page=v |isbn= 9781782259251}} She is a member of the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges and the International Association of Women Judges.{{cite web |url=https://www.ukawj.org/events-and-training |title=Events |author= |website= ukawj.org |access-date=2024-07-20}}

On 30 September 2024, Harris was appointed a judge of the Family Division of the High Court following several retirements.{{cite web |url=https://www.judiciary.uk/appointments-and-retirements/appointment-of-a-high-court-judge-harris/ |title=Appointment of a High Court Judge: Harris

|author= |website= judiciary.uk |access-date=2024-07-20}} She received the customary damehood in 2025.[https://www.gov.uk/government/news/knighthoods-and-damehoods-conferred-january-2025 Press release: Knighthoods and Damehoods conferred: January 2025] - website gov.uk of the HM Government

• Family Law: Text, Cases and Materials with Joanna Miles (2011) Pub. OUP {{ISBN|9780199563821}}
• Aboriginal Child Welfare, Self-Government and the Rights of the Indigenous Children: Protecting the Vulnerable Under International Law (2012) Pub. Routledge {{ISBN|9781409419549}}

• Accommodating Cultural Diversity ed. Stephen Tierney (2007) Pub. Routledge {{ISBN|9781317185918}}
• Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act Ed. Helen Fenwick, Gavin Phillipson, Roger Masterman (2009) Pub. CUP {{ISBN|9781139466769}}
• The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body Ed. Stephen W Smith, Ronan Deazley (2009) Pub. Routledge {{ISBN|9781138260320}}
• Feminist Judgements: From Theory to Practice ed. Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley, Rosemary Hunter (2010) Pub. Bloomsbury {{ISBN|9781847317278}}
• Fifty years of Family Law: Essays for Stephen Cretney Ed. Rebecca Probert, Chris Baron (2012) Pub. Cambridge {{ISBN|9781780680521}}
• The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Commentary Ed. John Tobin (2019) Pub. OUP {{ISBN|9780191544170}}

• The Futures of Legal Education and the Legal Profession with Hilary Sommerlad (2015) Pub. Hart Publishing {{ISBN|9781849466554}}

Harris has contributed articles to:

• British Yearbook of International Law{{cite magazine |date=2012 |author=Sonia Harris-Short |title=Aboriginal Child WElfare Life |magazine=British Yearbook of International Law |location=Oxford, UK |edition=Vol. 82 No. 1 |publisher=OUP |page=525}}
• Child and Family Law Quarterly{{cite web |url=https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1724602 |title=Sonia Harris-Short |author= |website= ssrn.com |access-date=2024-07-20}}
• Human Rights Quarterly{{cite magazine |date=December 2015 |author=Sonia Harris-Short |title=Making and Breaking Family Life |magazine=Journal of Law and Society |location=Maryland, USA |edition=Vol. 35 No. 4 |publisher=Wiley |page=594}}
• The International and Comparative Law Quarterly{{cite magazine |date=October 2003 |author=Sonia Harris-Short |title=Judicial Approaches to the Human Rights Acts |magazine=The International and Comparative Law Quarterly |location=Cambridge, UK |edition=Vol. 52 No. 4 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |page=549}}
• International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family{{cite magazine |date=April 2005 |author=Sonia Harris-Short |title=influencing traits before birth |magazine=International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family |location=Oxford, UK |edition=Vol. 19 No. 1 |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=130}}
• Journal of Law and Society{{cite magazine |date=Spring 2009 |author= |title=Staff profile: Sonia Harris-Short |magazine=Holdsworth |location=Birmingham, UK |publisher=University of Birmingham |page=4}}

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Category:1974 births

Category:Living people

Category:English women judges

Category:21st-century British women judges

Category:21st-century British women lawyers

Category:People from Coventry

Category:Dames Commander of the Order of the British Empire

Category:English King's Counsel

Category:21st-century King's Counsel

Category:British law biography stubs

Category:Family Division judges

Category:21st-century British women

Category:University of British Columbia alumni

Category:Academics of the University of Birmingham

Category:Academics of Durham University

Category:Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford

Category:Lawyers awarded damehoods