We are deeply saddened to report the death of Somerville College’s Honorary Fellow, Lady Hazel Fox CMG, on 12th July 2025.
Lady Fox was the first Law Fellow of Somerville College and a giant in the field of State Immunity law. Over the course of a long and distinguished legal career, Lady Fox served as Director of the British Institute of International and Comparative Law and General Editor of the International and Comparative Law Quarterly. She was also a member of the Institut de Droit International, a Bencher of Lincoln’s Inn, a Barrister at 4-5 Gray’s Inn Square and a member of the International Law Association Committees on State Immunity, Diplomatic Protection, and Reparation for Victims of War Damage.
A noted legal academic, Lady Fox was the author many books, from International Arbitration: Law and Procedure (1959) to her final work Law of State Immunity (1st ed. 2002, reprinted 2008). Her writings, especially on state immunity, are still regularly cited by leading courts around the world.
Lady Fox is noteworthy to many Somervillians having served as the first Law Fellow of Somerville College, and as personal tutor to generations of students. Margaret Casely-Hayford CBE, also an Honorary Fellow of Somerville, recalls the profound impact Lady Fox had on her development: “I will be forever grateful for the opportunity that Lady Fox and Ann de Moor kindly gave me when they accepted me as a student at Somerville. Lady Fox was my personal tutor and it is no exaggeration to say that she taught me how to think, and that I have built my entire career upon that foundation. Lady Fox leaves at Somerville an incredible legacy of lawyers inspired and taught by her.”
Lady Fox will be commemorated at the next Somerville College Commemoration, which will be held on June 13th 2026.
Lady Hazel Fox CMG