Stanley Alexander de Smith

Stanley Alexander de Smith
Stanley Alexander de Smith in the 1960s at the LSE
Born	(1922-03-27)27 March 1922 London
Died	12 February 1974(1974-02-12) (aged 51)
Citizenship	British
Education	Southend High School
Alma mater	St Catharine's College, Cambridge, University of London
Occupation	Academic Lawyer
Employer	London School of Economics, Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Awards	Order of Leopold II, Croix de Guerre, FBA

Stanley Alexander de Smith FBA (27 March 1922 – 12 February 1974) was an English academic lawyer and author.

Stanley de Smith was born in London and educated at Southend High School and St Catharine's College, Cambridge (BA 1942, MA 1946); he received his doctorate from the University of London in 1959. After distinguished war service with the Royal Artillery—during which he was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Order of Leopold II and the Croix de Guerre (1940) with palms—he taught from 1946 at the London School of Economics, University of London, 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 and a Fellow of Fitzwilliam College. In 1971 he was elected to a Fellowship of the British Academy. He was editor of the Cambridge Law Journal from 1973-74. He died in 1974, aged 51.

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 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, 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; his ashes were scattered in that country.