Professor gives Caroline Weatherill Memorial Lecture 2023 in the Isle of Man

A Visiting Professor at Harper Adams University has given this year’s Caroline Weatherill Memorial Lecture in the Isle of Man.

The annual lecture commemorates the life of Isle of Man advocate, Caroline Weatherill, who died tragically shortly after giving birth to twin daughters in 2006. Every autumn, a guest speaker is invited to speak at the event – with past speakers including Baroness Hale, Lord Neuberger, and former Lord Chancellor, Charles Falconer.

This year, Harper Adams Visiting Professor of Real Estate Practice Law, Carrie de Silva, was the invited guest, and gave a talk examining how key women had changed the course of family law development.

Speaking afterwards, she said: “I was delighted to have been invited to deliver the Caroline Weatherill Memorial Lecture.

“I was particularly honoured that her widower and one of the twins attended the lecture, along with the island’s Attorney General, a member of the legislative council and members of the Isle of Man Law Society, who organise the event. 

“My talk was Six women who made a difference to the development of family law, looking at the lives and key cases and legislation influenced by Caroline Norton, Barbara Bodichon, Annie Besant, Margaret Llewelyn Davies, Helena Normanton and Edith Summerskill.”

Carrie’s invitation to give the talk – which is hosted by the Isle of Man Law Society - followed a similar one which she made at the Jersey International Family Law Conference in St Helier in 2022.

She added: “It was a pleasure to have the opportunity, earlier in the day, to look round the Tynwald Court, the House of Keys and the Legislative Council rooms and explore further the workings of the Crown Dependency - which was the first in the world to give women a vote in national elections, in 1881 - albeit not all women!”