Professor Michael Zander KC

Michael Zander is an Emeritus Professor Law at LSE.

Michael Zander took a Double First Honours Degree at Cambridge, obtained a First Class in the LLB and was awarded the Whewell Scholarship in International Law. He took an LLM at Harvard and worked for a year with Sullivan & Cromwell on Wall Street. He then returned to this country, qualified as a solicitor and practised for a period before joining the Law Department in 1963. Also in 1963, he became Legal Correspondent of The Guardian, a position he held for twenty-five years, contributing more than 1,400 pieces. He has been a member of the Home Office PACE Strategy Board since it was established in 2008.

He was appointed to a Chair in 1977. He was convener of the Law Department from 1984 to 1988 and again in 1997-98. He was made an Honorary QC in 1997. In 2001 he was made an Honorary Fellow of the LSE. In 2005 he was appointed a Senior Fellow of the British Academy. He retired from full-time teaching in 1998.

In 2010 he received an Honorary Doctorate of Laws at King's College, London. The citation stated: 'He has devoted a long and active career to the study, teaching, practice and improvement of the law, and has made outstanding contributions in both the academic and public spheres. There is no greater authority in the fields to which he has devoted himself: criminal procedure, civil procedure, legal profession and legal services ... The central mission of his professional life has been to make the justice system work better.'

In September 2015 Michael Zander was the recipient of the Halsbury Lifetime Contribution Award. (The Halsbury Legal Awards were instituted in 2013. The previous recipients were Sir Sydney Kentridge QC in 2013 and Lord Judge, the then recently retired Lord Chief Justice, in 2014.)

For Sir Sydney Kentridge QC's letter about Professor Zander's career, in support of the Halsbury Lifetime Contribution Award click here.

On 19 October 2023 the Law School took note of Michael Zander’s 90^th birthday by hosting his lecture: "Promoting Change in the Legal System – a Memoir". For the text of the lecture click here, or watch the video on youtube.

Professor Zander's main fields are Police Powers, Legal System, Criminal Procedure, Civil Procedure, Legal Profession and Legal Services.

Publications

Engagement and Impact

‘Poverty and the Law’ (Socialist Commentary, September 1966, pp.13-18)

The first publication in England proposing adoption of the U.S. concept of neighbourhood law firms - salaried lawyers in poverty areas. The argument was later developed in the Society of Labour Lawyers’ 1968 pamphlet, Justice for All which I mainly wrote and which led to the setting up of law centres.

Bail: A Reappraisal' (Criminal Law Review, l967, pp.25-39, 100-10, 128-42)

A three-part article assessing the operation of the bail system and proposing reforms. One of the proposed reforms was that information about the bail applicant’s circumstances should be provided to the court when the police opposed bail. Almost 30 years later, such a scheme operated by Probation was established by the Home Office. (Home Office, Press Release 12 February 1993)

‘Unrepresented Defendants in the Criminal Courts’ (Criminal Law Review, 1969, pp.632-45)

Report of a study conducted with LSE law students and volunteer Bar students in the Central Criminal Court, Inner London Sessions, Middlesex Sessions and 15 London magistrates’ courts. The students observed 415 cases in the higher courts and 1,140 cases in the magistrates’ courts. These were the first statistics produced in this country showing both the proportion and type of cases in which the defendant was unrepresented. In the higher courts the position was found to be basically satisfactory. In the magistrates’ courts it was found to be very disturbing.

‘Unrepresented defendants in magistrates' courts 1972' (New Law Journal, 23 November 1972, pp.1041-42)

This study with law students was at least one of the reasons for the subsequent considerable increase in the grants of legal aid in magistrates’ courts.

These studies were part of what led to the JUSTICE Report The Unrepresented Defendant in the Magistrates' Court', 1971 (of which I was chief author) recommending the establishment of Duty Solicitor Schemes.

`A Study of Bail/Custody Decisions in London Magistrates' Courts' (Criminal Law Review, 1971, pp.l91-211)

Report of a study with law students from LSE, University College, Queen Mary and some Bar students in which we looked at bail hearings in 17 London magistrates’ courts. The study identified a variety of problems. The article proposed reforms.

‘Legal Advice and Criminal Appeals: A Survey of Prisoners, Prisons and Lawyers’, Criminal Law Review, 1972, p.132.)

Interviews were conducted with 132 prisoners who had applied for leave to appeal to the Court of Appeal. In some two-thirds of the cases the appeal had been launched without or against the advice of their lawyers. In at least a tenth of the cases the lawyers had failed in their statutory duty to advise whether there were grounds of appeal. In a majority of the cases the lawyers had not troubled to see their clients at the end of the case. This study led to a new procedure.

Legal Advice on Criminal Appeals: The New Machinery' (Criminal Law Review, July 1975, pp.364-69)

Under the new procedure, counsel’s brief was required to contain instructions to advise whether, after conviction, there were any grounds of appeal. Before leaving court counsel had to sign a statement as to whether there were grounds, and if so, either leave a draft or state that they would be sent to the solicitor within 14 days. It was for the solicitor, before leaving court, to see the client and hand him counsel’s advice.

‘Access to a Solicitor in the Police Station' (Criminal Law Review, 1972, pp.342-50)

The 132 prisoners in the criminal appeals study (above) were asked about their access to legal advice in the police station. Three-quarters of suspects who asked to speak to a solicitor had been prohibited from doing so. These were the first such statistics in this country.

`Pro Bono Publico' (Law Society's Gazette, 27 September 1972, p.874)

This article was the first to propose that English solicitors’ firms might undertake pro bono work (as happened in the US). The response at that time was unenthusiastic to say the least. It took quite a number of years before the idea bore fruit – due in particular to the work of Andrew Phillips (Lord Phillips of Sudbury).

`Informing the suspect of his rights in the police station' (Law Society's Gazette, 20 December 1972, p.1238)

Report of a study with 50 law students from LSE and University College. The students went to police stations all over London and asked the desk sergeant to answer a short questionnaire as to how access to legal advice was handled. One of the findings was that, according to the police, local solicitors were unwilling to come to the police station out of hours.

`Clinical legal education' (New Law Journal, 22 February 1973, pp.181-83)

The first mention in this country of the US movement for involving law students in real cases.

`The allocation of criminal legal aid in magistrates' courts' (Law Society's Gazette, 3 October 1973, pp.2372-75)

Interviews conducted with clerks in 13 of the 14 Inner London magistrates’ courts. The tentative suggestion of some element of corruption in the process of allocating legal aid led to a strong reaction including my being interviewed by officers of the Metropolitan Police who wanted details that would identify those involved. I said this was research and that I was not able to assist them with their inquiries.

`Are too many professional criminals avoiding conviction? A study in Britain's two busiest courts' (Modern Law Review, January 1974, pp.28-61)

A study to investigate the claim by Sir Robert Mark, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, that too many professional criminals were getting acquittals. The sample consisted of consecutive cases at the Old Bailey and the Inner London Crown Court that included 100 acquittals in each court. Reviewing the criminal convictions of the 1,435 defendants in the sample showed that the worse the criminal record the lower the acquittal rate.

‘Costs in Crown Courts - a Study of Lawyers' Fees Paid out of Public Funds' (Criminal Law Review, l976, pp.5-41)

The study was the focus of an article in The Times by Bernard Levin, 6 January 1976, which in turn led to a campaign started by Jack Ashley MP, that resulted only weeks later in the establishment of the Royal Commission on Legal Services. For my account of this story see my October 2023 lecture’ at the LSE (‘Promoting Change in the Legal System -a Memoir’ (YouTube).

`Should solicitors profit from their client account?' (New Law Journal, 6 May l976, pp.456-58 reprinted in the Gazette of the Incorporated Law Society of Ireland, vol.70, No.3, April 1976, pp.62-64)

Arguing for legislation requiring interest on solicitors’ client account to be paid into a public fund to be used for a variety of purposes to the benefit of legal services, legal education and legal system research.

`The Criminal Process - a Subject Ripe for a Major Enquiry' (Criminal Law Review, May 1977, pp.249-58)

I sent a pre-publication copy of this article to Roger Darlington, Political Adviser to the Home Secretary, Merlyn Rees and met with Darlington on April 4. He took the matter forward with the Home Secretary. The setting up of the Royal Commission on Criminal Procedure was announced by the Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, on June 23, 1977, a month after publication of the article.

‘Promoting change in the legal system’ (Modern Law Review, 1979, pp.489-507)

My Inaugural Lecture as a Professor at the LSE.

*The Crown Court Study, Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, Research Study No.19, 1993, with Paul Henderson, 274pp

The Crown Court Study was based on questionnaires administered to all the participants in every completed case during a two-week period in every crown court in England and Wales (save three courts used in the pilot). The sample consisted of over 3,000 cases, including some 800 trials. Long and different questionnaires were given to the judges, the barristers, the CPS, the defence solicitors, the police, the jurors, the court clerks and the defendants.

I developed the questionnaires, ran the study, designed the analysis and wrote the report. My co-author, Paul Henderson, a Home Office statistician, did the number crunching.

`The Woolf Report: Forwards or Backwards for the New Lord Chancellor?' The Chancery Bar Association Lecture (Civil Justice Quarterly, vol.16, July 1997, pp.208-27 and reprinted in The Journal of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, vol.64, May 1998)

I make my case against Lord Woolf’s proposed civil justice reforms.

`Woolf on Zander' (New Law Journal, 23 May 1997, pp.768-70)

My response to Lord Woolf’s critique of my criticisms of his report. (Lord Woolf had devoted most of a lecture to the Royal College of Physicians to a reply to my Chancery Bar Association Lecture on his proposals.)

‘How to lose a title’ (New Law Journal, 11 April 2014, pp.7-8. Reprinted in Counsel, June 2014.)

The story of the Election Court case on which I worked with Tony Benn who fought to retain his position as an MP after succeeding to the Stansgate peerage. For a fuller account by Benn see Vol 2 of his published Diaries, pp.397-407.

‘Zander on Woolf’ (New Law Journal, 13 March 2009, pp.367-68)

Reflecting on the Woolf Reforms Ten Years On – and suggesting that my pessimistic predictions had mainly been borne out.

‘The Criminal Cases Review Commission, the Court of Appeal and Jury Decisions – A Better Way Forward’ (Criminal Law and Justice Weekly, 31 January 2015, p.18 and 21 February 2015

This two-part article related to the House of Commons Justice Select Committee’s inquiry on the CCRC to which I sent three submissions of written evidence and gave oral evidence on January 20, 2015 with Lord Runciman. The main issue canvassed in the written submissions was the rules governing the CCRC’s referral of cases to the Court of Appeal.

‘Heads I win, tails you lose?’ (New Law Journal, 5 February 2021, p.9)

Summarising responses to the Government’s inquiry into Judicial Review and predicting that if the Boris Johnson Government found it was displeased with the Faulks Review, it would proceed with its intended reforms regardless.

‘How is PACE Working?’ (Criminal Law Review, 2022, 9, pp.718-36)

The first such assessment.

‘Reform of the Criminal Justice System: The Report of the Runciman Royal Commission’ (Criminal Law Review, 2023(10) 627-38

Reprint of the Austin Lecture which I gave in 1994, the year after the Royal Commission’s report was published reflecting on the process and the reaction to the Commission’s report.

‘Zander’s Reflections – on how he helped to derail Lord Carter’s proposed sentencing reforms’ (New Law Journal, 8 December 2023)