Michael Zander

Michael Zander
Professor Michael Zander, 1977
Born	Berlin
Nationality	British
Alma mater	University of Cambridge
Awards	QC
Scientific career
Fields	Law
Institutions	London School of Economics

Michael Zander, KC, FBA, (born 16 November 1932 in Berlin) is a British legal scholar. He is Professor Emeritus of Law at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Zander was a member of the Royal Commission on Criminal Justice (1991–1993). He is currently a member of the Home Office's PACE Strategy Board.

Early life and education

Zander was born in Berlin, Germany in 1932 and is the son of lawyer and scholar Walter Zander and Margarete (Gretl) Magnus. In 1937, when he was four years old, the family emigrated from Germany to England because of their Jewish background. His brother is the conductor Benjamin Zander.

After attending the Royal Grammar School, High Wycombe from 1946 to 1951, he won an Open Exhibition in English at Jesus College, Cambridge, where he took a Double First Honours Degree in Law, then obtained a First Class in the LLB and was awarded the Whewell Scholarship in International Law. Zander then took an LLM at Harvard University.

Career

Zander worked with the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell on Wall Street for a year before returning to the United Kingdom in 1959. He became a solicitors’ articled clerk with Ashurst Morris Crisp and became a qualified solicitor in 1962. During his clerkship he was legal adviser to Tony Benn in his battle to remain in the House of Commons.

In 1963 Zander joined the LSE Law Department. He was appointed to a Chair in 1977; he was Convenor (Head) of the Law Department from 1984 to 1988 and again in 1997–98. He was appointed an Honorary Queen's Counsel in 1997 and was elected a Senior Fellow of the British Academy in 2005. Professor Zander retired from the LSE in 1998 but twenty-five years later he was still active writing and publishing articles and new editions of his books.

From 1963 to 1988, he was Legal Correspondent of The Guardian newspaper, for which he wrote more than 1,400 articles.

Selected publications

• Lawyers and the Public Interest (1968)
• Legal Services for the Community (1978)
• A Matter of Justice (1989)
• The Crown Court Study (Royal Commission on Criminal Justice, Research Study No.19, 1993)
• A Bill of Rights? (4th ed.1997)
• The State of Justice (2000)
• The Law-Making Process (9th ed.,2025)
• Zander on PACE The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (9th ed.,2023)
• Cases and Materials on the English Legal System (10th ed., 2007)