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{{Short description|Welsh legal scholar}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}
{{Infobox academic
| name = J. A. G. Griffith
| honorific_suffix = {{post-nominals|country=GBR|FBA|size=100%}}
| image = John Aneurin Grey Griffith, c1980 (4322172360).jpg
| alt =
| caption =
| birth_name = John Aneurin Grey Griffith
| birth_date = {{birth date|1918|10|14|df=yes}}
| birth_place = [[Cardiff]], [[Wales]]
| death_date = {{death date and age|2010|05|08|1918|10|14|df=yes}}
| death_place =
| residence =
| home_town =
| spouse = {{marriage|Barbara Garnet|1941}}
| thesis_title =
| thesis_year =
| school_tradition =
| doctoral_advisor =
| academic_advisors =
| influences = [[Harold Laski]], [[Ivor Jennings]], [[William A. Robson]]
| era =
| discipline = Law
| sub_discipline =
| workplaces = {{ubl | [[University College of Wales]] | [[London School of Economics]] (1948–1984)}}
| doctoral_students = 
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| main_interests =
| notable_works =
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|education=[[London School of Economics]] (LLB, LLM)}}
'''John Aneurin Grey Griffith''', {{Post-nominals|country=UK|FBA}} (14 October 1918 – 8 May 2010) was a Welsh legal scholar.

== Early life and education ==
He was born in [[Cardiff]] to a Baptist family, Rev. B. Grey Griffith and Bertha.<ref name=":0" /> He was educated at [[Taunton School]] in Somerset, where he became a pacifist.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite ODNB|title=Griffith, John Aneurin Grey (1918–2010), legal scholar|url=https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-102785|access-date=2020-10-21|year = 2004|language=en|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/102785|isbn = 9780198614111}}</ref> He graduated with a first-class [[Bachelor of Laws|LLB]] at the [[London School of Economics]] in 1940.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Griffith, Prof. John Aneurin Grey, (14 Oct. 1918–8 May 2010), Barrister-at-law; Chancellor of Manchester University, 1986–93; Emeritus Professor of Public Law, University of London|url=https://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/10.1093/ww/9780199540891.001.0001/ww-9780199540884-e-18213|access-date=2020-10-21|website=WHO'S WHO & WHO WAS WHO|year=2007|language=en|doi=10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.u18213|isbn=978-0-19-954089-1 }}</ref><ref name="Guardian">Martin Loughlin, '[https://www.theguardian.com/education/2010/may/25/john-griffith-obituary John Griffith obituary]', ''The Guardian'' (25 May 2010), retrieved 23 July 2019.</ref> He was called to the [[Bar (law)|bar]].<ref name=":0" /> He was a member of the [[Peace Pledge Union]] and initially registered as a [[conscientious objector]] during the [[World War II|Second World War]], serving two years in the [[Royal Army Medical Corps]].<ref name=":1" /> He unregistered as conscientious objector and began officer training in the Indian Army, serving a further two years and left in 1946 as a major.<ref name="Guardian"/>

== Career ==
After the War he [[Lecturer|lectured]] at the [[University College of Wales]] from 1946 to 1948 and concurrently completed an [[Master of Laws|LLM]] at the LSE.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He returned to the LSE in 1948 as a lecturer in law, becoming a [[Reader (academic rank)|Reader]] in [[English law]] in 1954.<ref name=":1" /> Griffith subsequently became [[Professor]] of English Law 1959 to 1970; then he was Professor of Public law from 1970 until he retired in 1984, becoming Emeritus Professor of Public Law.<ref name=":0" /> He held a Visiting Professorship at [[University of California, Berkeley]] in 1966 and at [[York University|York University, Toronto]] in 1985.<ref name=":0" /> Post-retirement, he was elected as Chancellor of the [[University of Manchester]], a post he held for seven years. He was elected a Fellow of the [[British Academy]] in 1977.<ref name="Guardian"/>

Griffith's legal works, according to Martin Loughlin, "subverted the self-satisfied liberal-democratic view about the nature and functioning of the constitution, replacing it with a more realistic “what actually happens” account...his more explicitly political analyses tended to highlight the authoritarian nature of government and in particular the close political, social and class linkages of the elites in power". Griffith's also "advanced a radical critique of the role of the judiciary, especially when it strayed into the field of politics".<ref name="Guardian"/> Griffith's believed that the idea of "the [[rule of law]]" was "a fantasy invented by Liberals of the old school in the late-19th century and patented by the Tories to throw a protective sanctity around certain legal and political institutions and principles which they wish to preserve at any cost".<ref name="Guardian"/>

In its review of Griffith's 1977 work ''The Politics of the Judiciary'', the ''[[The Times Literary Supplement|Times Literary Supplement]]'' claimed that Griffith's "ends up aligned with the [[Red Army Faction|Baader–Meinhof gang]] in believing that every criminal trial is categorically unjust".<ref name="Guardian"/> The book subsequently became a bestseller and [[Alfred Denning|Lord Denning]] later complained: "The youngsters believe that we come from a narrow background—it's nonsense—they get it from that man Griffith".<ref>Anthony Sampson, ''The Changing Anatomy of Britain'' (London: Hodder and Staughton, 1982), p. 159.</ref>

== Personal life ==
He married Barbara Eirene Garnet, with whom he had two sons and one daughter.<ref name=":0" /> In his ''[[Who's Who (UK)|Who's Who]]'' entry, he listed his recreations as "Drinking beer, writing bad verse".<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":1" /> He served as a [[councillor]] on Marlow council from 1950 to 1955, and Buckinghamshire city council from 1955 to 1961.<ref name=":1" />

==Works==
*(with Harry Street), ''Principles of Administrative Law'' (1952).
*(with Harry Street), ''A Casebook of Administrative Law'' (1964).
*''Central Departments and Local Authorities'' (1966).
*''Parliamentary Scrutiny of Government Bills'' (1974).
*(with Trevor Hartley), ''Government and Law'' (1975).
*''The Politics of the Judiciary'' (1977).
*(with [[Harriet Harman]]), ''Justice Deserted'' (1979).
*''Socialism in a Cold Climate'' (1983).
*(with Michael Ryle), ''Parliament: Functions, Practice and Procedures'' (1989).
*''Judicial Politics since 1920: A Chronicle'' (1993).

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Griffiths, John}}
[[Category:1918 births]]
[[Category:2010 deaths]]
[[Category:People educated at Taunton School]]
[[Category:Alumni of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Academics of the London School of Economics]]
[[Category:Welsh legal scholars]]
[[Category:Fellows of the British Academy]]
[[Category:Welsh conscientious objectors]]
[[Category:British Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Royal Army Medical Corps soldiers]]
[[Category:Indian Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:British Indian Army officers]]
[[Category:Welsh legal writers]]
[[Category:Labour Party (UK) councillors]]

J. A. G. Griffith - Revision history

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