Ruth's parents Charlotte and Rudolf Oppenheimer came from
Germany to
Britain as
refugees in the 1930s. Ruth was born in Devon, where her father was stationed during the war. Her education began at North London Collegiate School. She studied
Philosophy, Politics and Economics at
Somerville College, Oxford and an MA in philosophy at
University of London. She moved to Scotland in the 1960s with her husband and children and became a part-time tutor in the Philosophy Department of
Edinburgh University for many years before gaining a further PhD in Law presenting the thesis, "Rights, interests and reasoning in juvenile justice". She was influenced by her supervisor
Neil MacCormick. Adler was bilingual in English and German and, after obtaining her PhD, she and MacCormick collaborated in translating a number of books by leading Czech (Ota Weinberger) and German (
Robert Alexy, Guenter Teubner) legal philosophers from German into English. While working at The Scottish Child Law Centre she helped to create the first comprehensive database of child law in Scotland. She was a
magistrate and a
Justice of the Peace. From 1987 to 1991 she was responsible for investigating complaints against solicitors and Secretary and President (1998) of the
Edinburgh Jewish Literary Society. Adler founded the Scottish office of
Amnesty International in 1991. She worked there until a few days before her death from cancer in 1994, when she was only 49 years old. == Works ==