Claire Dorothea Taylor Palley (born 17 February 1931) is a South African academic and lawyer who specialises in constitutional and human rights law.
She attended Durban Girls' College before she went on to study at the University of Cape Town and after graduating took up a post as a lecturer in the Law School.
The Palleys moved to Rhodesia in the belief that it would offer a more liberal political regime than the apartheid system which then existed in South Africa.
[3] From 1962-1970 Ahrn Palley was Rhodesia's only Independent MP representing the predominantly black constituency of Highfield.
[4] Her books cover international relations and contemporary history, as seen from the standpoint of a constitutional, international and human rights lawyer,[5] minority rights [6] Her pioneering appointment as the first British woman law professor in 1970 at Queen's University Belfast[3] was initially overlooked.