Dame Sonia Ruth Harris (born 12 September 1974) is a British High Court judge.
Education Harris attended Coventry Blue Coat Church of England School. In 1993, she received a BA degree in jurisprudence from Christ Church, Oxford, graduating with first-class honours.Alumni: Appointment of High Court Judge – website of Christ Church, Oxford
In 2009, she earned an LLM degree at the Peter A. Allard School of Law of the University of British Columbia.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 LawHuman Rights Quarterly, Volume 25, Number 1, February 2003 – website of Project Muse Harris had visiting appointments at University of Victoria, Canada, and University of New South Wales, Australia, supported by a British Academy research grant.
Career Academic Harris was called to the bar (Lincoln's Inn) in 1998. From 1999 to 2006, she was a senior lecturer at Durham University. From 2006 to 2014, she was reader and then professor of family law and policy at Birmingham School of Law. Between 2012 and 2014, she was head of the University of Birmingham's Centre for Employability, Professional Legal Education and Research (CEPLER). While at Birmingham, she was an honorary door tenant at St Philips Chambers. In 2008, she became director of the Birmingham Law School LLM programme. Between January and April 2010, she was a visiting scholar at Stockholm University. In 2012, she was appointed special adviser to the House of Lords' Select Committee on Adoption. She is an honorary professor at the University of Birmingham.
Judge In 2010, Harris was appointed a deputy district judge. In 2014, she was appointed a district judge. 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. Harris was on the advisory group of the Children's Rights Judgement. She is a member of the United Kingdom Association of Women Judges and the International Association of Women Judges.
On 30 September 2024, Harris was appointed a judge of the Family Division of the High Court following several retirements. She received the customary damehood in 2025.Press release: Knighthoods and Damehoods conferred: January 2025 – website gov.uk of the HM Government
Publications Author Family Law: Text, Cases and Materials with Joanna Miles (2011) Pub. OUP Aboriginal Child Welfare, Self-Government and the Rights of the Indigenous Children: Protecting the Vulnerable Under International Law (2012) Pub. Routledge
Contributor Accommodating Cultural Diversity ed. Stephen Tierney (2007) Pub. Routledge Judicial Reasoning under the UK Human Rights Act Ed. Helen Fenwick, Gavin Phillipson, Roger Masterman (2009) Pub. CUP The Legal, Medical and Cultural Regulation of the Body Ed. Stephen W Smith, Ronan Deazley (2009) Pub. Routledge Feminist Judgements: From Theory to Practice ed. Clare McGlynn, Erika Rackley, Rosemary Hunter (2010) Pub. Bloomsbury Fifty years of Family Law: Essays for Stephen Cretney Ed. Rebecca Probert, Chris Baron (2012) Pub. Cambridge The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child: A Commentary Ed. John Tobin (2019) Pub. OUP
Editor The Futures of Legal Education and the Legal Profession with Hilary Sommerlad (2015) Pub. Hart Publishing
Articles Harris has contributed articles to: British Yearbook of International Law Child and Family Law Quarterly Human Rights Quarterly The International and Comparative Law Quarterly International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family Journal of Law and Society
References