Glanville Williams

He attended Cowbridge Grammar School (founded in 1608 by Sir Edward Stradling of St. Donat's Castle, Glamorgan ) from 1923 to 1927.

He obtained a First in law at University College of Wales.

Glanville Llewelyn Williams (15 February 1911 – 10 April 1997) was a Welsh legal scholar who was the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1978 and the Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London, from 1945 to 1955.

He has been described as Britain's foremost scholar of criminal law.

Williams was born on 15 February 1911 in Bridgend, Wales.

He was called to the Bar and became a member of Middle Temple in 1935.

He was a Research Fellow from 1936 to 1942 and completed his Doctor of Philosophy degree in law at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was examined by the Vinerian Professor of English Law at Oxford, Sir William Searle Holdsworth, who was at the time, a Fellow of St John's College, Oxford.

Holdsworth famously asked whether it had been submitted for an LLD as opposed to a DPhil, as the quality and rigour of the thesis was so great.

Before turning to the criminal law, Williams had already written what are still the definitive books on a range of other important legal subjects: Liability for Animals (1939), The Law Reform (Frustrated Contracts) Acts (1943) (1945), Crown Proceedings (1948), Joint Obligations (1949), and Joint Torts and Contributory Negligence (1950).

Throughout his lifetime he also served as an Honorary and Emeritus Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and Honorary Bencher of Middle Temple; and served as the Professor of Public Law and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London, from 1945 to 1955.

His influential law book Learning the Law (1945), in its seventeenth edition, is a critically acclaimed and popular introductory text for legal undergraduates, dubbing itself "Guide, Philosopher and Friend".

William was a Reader in English Law then Professor of Public Law and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at the University of London from 1945 to 1955.

And with Learning the Law (1945), now in its 11th edition, he wrote a little introductory book about law studies which was, and still remains, indispensable reading for any would-be law student.

In 1947 he had edited Salmond's Jurisprudence."

For taking notes, he invented and patented a new form of shorthand (Speedhand Shorthand, 1952).

"Nowadays Williams is best known as a writer on criminal law, where his fame rests on four books, the influence of which has been enormous. First among these stands his Criminal Law: the General Part (1953), a 900-page text concerned, as he explained in the preface, 'to search out the general rules of the criminal law, i.e. those applying to more than one crime'. The Proof of Guilt (1955) is a comparative account of the rules by which criminal cases are tried in England and Wales, penetrating in its analysis of the merits of our system as well as its defects. The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law (1958) examines the philosophical basis for laws against contraception, sterilisation, artificial insemination, abortion, suicide and euthanasia; when it appeared it was very controversial. The fourth book is his 1,000-page Textbook of Criminal Law (1978). This was a successful student textbook, and would be one still if he had ever managed to finish the third edition, on which he had been labouring for 14 years at the time of his death.

In fact, his range as a writer went far beyond the criminal law.

In The Sanctity of Life and the Criminal Law (1957), Williams criticised Christian, especially Roman Catholic, opposition to contraception, artificial insemination, sterilisation, abortion, suicide and euthanasia.

He then moved to the University of Cambridge and was a Fellow of Jesus College, Cambridge, and a Reader in Law from 1957 to 1965, then Professor of English Law from 1966 to 1968.

He was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 1957.

He covered an even wider range of topics in the huge number of articles which, astonishingly, he also found the time to write.

It is difficult, indeed, to think of any important legal subject on which at some time he did not have something original and interesting to say.

Nor is this all.

His groundbreaking Criminal Law: The General Part (Steven & Sons, London, 1961) is a classic still widely read and cited.

Similarly, his Textbook of Criminal Law, remains a standard textbook for judges, barristers, professors and students.

Williams's influence in the highest courts was sustained and significant.

He then became the Rouse Ball Professor of English Law from 1968 to 1978.

Williams's Textbook of Criminal Law (London: Steven & Sons, 1983) is on a United States list of the most cited legal books.

The Textbook of Criminal Law, was arguably his best work, as he drew on 50 years of expertise in the area.

Williams was well into his seventies when he wrote the 1983 volume.

It is a magisterial book written in Socratic style.

Williams published article after article in top refereed journals, even in his eighties.

He was arguably the greatest legal thinker of the twentieth century.

One notable example is in R v Shivpuri [1986] A.C. 1, where the defendant imported harmless vegetable material akin to snuff believing he was importing drugs.

The House of Lords held: "it was immaterial that the appellant was unsure of the exact nature of the substance in his possession in that in any event he believed that he was dealing with either heroin or cannabis the importation of which was prohibited."

Lord Bridge of Harwich stated:

"I cannot conclude this opinion without disclosing that I have had the advantage, since the conclusion of the argument in this appeal, of reading an article by Professor Glanville Williams entitled "The Lords and Impossible Attempts, or Quis Custodiet Ipsos Custodes?" [1986] CLJ 33. The language in which he criticises the decision in Anderton v Ryan is not conspicuous for its moderation, but it would be foolish, on that account, not to recognise the force of the criticism and churlish not to acknowledge the assistance I have derived from it.

I would answer the certified question in the affirmative and dismiss the appeal."

John Spencer, summed up his massive contribution in 1997:

In 2012, Dennis Baker edited a new third edition of Williams' Textbook of Criminal Law, continuing the Socratic style of the originals.