Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Longlist 2026 | With the Law on Our Side: How the law works for everyone and how we can make it work better - Lady Hale

Told through captivating real cases in real courts, the former President of the Supreme Court leads us on a deeply entertaining and vitally important top-to-bottom tour of the law in our land. Our laws and justice system might touch our lives when we have an accident, a wrong is done to us, or we have a family difficulty. They are vast, ancient and cover everything from the personal to the regulation of our government.

But to most of us, they are a web of intimidating institutions and practices. Lady Hale – an inspirational figure admired for her historic achievements and activism – shows us how the law is on our side. Taking us into the complexities of real courts and real decisions, we see that we all have rights: schoolchildren, disabled people, workers, minorities and patients.

Here are true stories from every part of the justice system, from lowly benefits tribunals and magistrates’ courts to the lofty heights of the Royal Courts of Justice and the Old Bailey; stories about the dilemmas of deciding what is right and just, and which invite you to say where justice lies before knowing what the courts decided. We see first-hand how the people whose needs the law is designed to protect actually experience it. With the Law on Our Side is a citizen’s guidebook to the law in our land, a top-to-bottom tour with a supremely expert guide.

In captivating stories, it tells us what the law is about, how it works and most importantly why we should all care about it.