Stanley Alexander de Smith
Encyclopedia
Stanley Alexander de Smith FBA  (March 27, 1922 - February 12, 1974) was an English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 academic lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

 and author
Author
An author is broadly defined as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created. Narrowly defined, an author is the originator of any written work.-Legal significance:...

.

Biography

Stanley de Smith was born in London and educated at Southend High School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St Catharine's College, Cambridge
St. Catharine’s College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1473, the college is often referred to informally by the nickname "Catz".-History:...

 (BA 1942, MA 1946); he received his doctorate from the University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

 in 1959. After distinguished war service with the Royal Artillery—during which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Order of Leopold II
Order of Leopold II
The Order of Leopold II is an order of Belgium and is named in honor of King Léopold II. The decoration was established on 24 August 1900 by Leopold II as king of the Congo Free State and was in 1908, upon Congo being handed over to Belgium, incorporated into the Belgian awards system...

 and the Croix de Guerre
Croix de guerre
The Croix de guerre is a military decoration of France. It was first created in 1915 and consists of a square-cross medal on two crossed swords, hanging from a ribbon with various degree pins. The decoration was awarded during World War I, again in World War II, and in other conflicts...

 (1940) with palms—he taught from 1946 at the London School of Economics
London School of Economics
The London School of Economics and Political Science is a public research university specialised in the social sciences located in London, United Kingdom, and a constituent college of the federal University of London...

, University of London
University of London
-20th century:Shortly after 6 Burlington Gardens was vacated, the University went through a period of rapid expansion. Bedford College, Royal Holloway and the London School of Economics all joined in 1900, Regent's Park College, which had affiliated in 1841 became an official divinity school of the...

, successively as Assistant Lecturer, Lecturer, Reader and (from 1959-1970) as Professor of Public Law. He taught LLM courses on "Constitutional Laws of the Commonwealth I" (focusing on Canada, Australia and either India or Pakistan) and, from 1957,"a second course on constitutional laws of the Commonwealth, with a syllabus excluding those countries already covered by the established course and devoting special attention to the constitutions of Ghana, the Federation of Malaya, the Federation and Regions of Nigeria, the Federation of the West Indies, the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, Singapore, Uganda and Kenya".

In 1970, de Smith returned to the University of Cambridge as Downing Professor of the Laws of England
Downing Professor of the Laws of England
The Downing Professorship of the Laws of England is one of the senior professorships in law at the University of Cambridge.The chair was founded in 1800 as a bequest of Sir George Downing, the founder of Downing College, Cambridge. The professorship was originally attached solely to Downing College...

 and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. In 1971 he was elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy
British Academy
The British Academy is the United Kingdom's national body for the humanities and the social sciences. Its purpose is to inspire, recognise and support excellence in the humanities and social sciences, throughout the UK and internationally, and to champion their role and value.It receives an annual...

. He was editor of the Cambridge Law Journal
Cambridge Law Journal
The Cambridge Law Journal is a peer-reviewed academic law journal published by Cambridge University Press. It is the principal academic publication of the Faculty of Law of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1921 it is the longest running university law journal in the United Kingdom . Its...

 from 1973-74. He died in 1974, aged 51 years.

His research and writing in the field of constitutional law focused in particular on the constitutional problems of developing countries: his advice in this area was frequently sought by the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 and other governments, and his work led to the publication of The New Commonwealth and its Constitutions in 1964, and after a stay as visiting fellow at the Center for International Studies and as visiting professor at the Law School of New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...

, of Microstates and Micronesia in 1970. To the end of his career he continued to be active as a consultant upon the constitutional problems of emergent states and nations. During the 1960s he served on a part-time basis as Constitutional Commissioner for Mauritius. His work for Mauritius is commemorated by a memorial in the Pamplemousses Botanical Gardens
Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden
The Sir Seewoosagur Ramgoolam Botanical Garden , commonly known as the Pamplemousses Botanical Garden, is a popular tourist attraction near Port Louis, Mauritius, and the oldest botanical garden in the Southern Hemisphere...

; his ashes were scattered in that country.

A second area of interest was administrative law
Administrative law
Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...

. From the publication in 1959 of the first edition of Judicial Review of Administrative Action, his reputation rapidly became established. He produced two further editions of this work in 1968 and 1973. A fourth edition was prepared in 1980 by Professor John M. Evans. Two subsequent editions of de Smith's ground-breaking work have been written by an editorial team led by Lord Woolf, Professor Jeffrey Jowell QC and Professor Andrew Le Sueur.

Among his other works was a popular student text, Constitutional and Administrative Law, with subsequent editions prepared by Barbara de Smith (de Smith's second wife), Professor Harry Street and Professor Rodney Brazier. de Smith was joint-editor of "Commonwealth and Dependencies" in the third edition of Halsbury's Laws of England
Halsbury's Laws of England
Halsbury's Laws of England is a uniquely comprehensive and authoritative encyclopaedia of law, and provides the only complete narrative statement of law in England and Wales. It has an alphabetised title scheme covering all areas of law, drawing on authorities including Acts of the United Kingdom,...

 and editor of "Administrative Law" in the fourth edition of that work.

An obituary in the Cambridge Law Journal paid tribute to "a legacy of outstanding scholarship. He reshaped administrative law
Administrative law
Administrative law is the body of law that governs the activities of administrative agencies of government. Government agency action can include rulemaking, adjudication, or the enforcement of a specific regulatory agenda. Administrative law is considered a branch of public law...

 as an academic subject in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, and his wide-ranging contributions to the literature of public law
Public law
Public law is a theory of law governing the relationship between individuals and the state. Under this theory, constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law are sub-divisions of public law...

 were consistently incisive and constructive. His style was both elegant and distinctive: like Blackstone
William Blackstone
Sir William Blackstone KC SL was an English jurist, judge and Tory politician of the eighteenth century. He is most noted for writing the Commentaries on the Laws of England. Born into a middle class family in London, Blackstone was educated at Charterhouse School before matriculating at Pembroke...

 - as Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham
Jeremy Bentham was an English jurist, philosopher, and legal and social reformer. He became a leading theorist in Anglo-American philosophy of law, and a political radical whose ideas influenced the development of welfarism...

 put it - he spoke the language of the scholar and the gentleman". The Cambridge Law Journal noted that de Smith "was at his happiest in postgraduate teaching and the supervision of research students, but he cared deeply about all aspects of teaching and tripos reform ... Those that knew him will remember him as a somewhat reserved person with a quiet sense of humour, though they will not have known that the appearance of reserve was the result of deafness caused by his artillery service in the war; he was invariably encouraging to his students and younger colleagues and he was generous in his assessment of others". A notice in the Modern Law Review
Modern Law Review
The Modern Law Review is a law review published in the United Kingdom by John Wiley & Sons and which has traditionally maintained close academic ties with the Law Department of the London School of Economics....

, a journal for which he served as secretary for many years, gave the following assessment:

"His work in administrative law has been of seminal significance in the development of the principles of judicial review by courts throughout the Commonwealth. With characteristic modesty, he was astonished by the success of his major books. ... Stanley de Smith was a scholar and legal writer of exceptional quality. He was shy and gave a—perhaps deceptive—impression of diffidence, but his conversation was enlivened by a dry humour, sometimes rather reminiscent of his hero, Maitland
Frederic William Maitland
Frederic William Maitland was an English jurist and historian, generally regarded as the modern father of English legal history.-Biography:...

, with whom as a constitutional lawyer he will certainly stand comparison".

Select bibliography

The Vocabulary for Commonwealth Relations (London: Published for the Institute of Commonwealth Studies by the Athlone Press, 1954).

Judicial Review of Administrative Action (London: Stevens) -- 1st edn 1959; 2nd edn 1968, 3rd edn 1973

The Lawyers and the Constitution: an Inaugural Lecture (London: London School of Economics and Political Science, 1960)

The New Commonwealth and its Constitutions (London: Stevens, 1964)

Report of the Constitutional Commissioner [for the Mauritius Legislative Assembly](Port Louis: Govt Printer, 1965)

Microstates and Micronesia : Problems of America's Pacific islands and other Minute Territories (New York: New York University Press, 1970).

A photographic portrait of de Smith appears in D.G.T. Williams, "Smith, Stanley Alexander de (1922–1974)" in the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (OUP 2004).
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