UCL Laws pays tribute to alumnus Professor Gary Slapper
9 December 2016
Friday 9 December 2016
UCL Faculty of Laws is saddened to learn of the passing of Professor Gary Slapper, Global Professor of Law at New York University, Director of NYU in London, and formerly Professor of Law and Head of the Law Department at the Open University.
Remembering Professor Gary Slapper, Rodney Austin, Teaching Fellow in Human Rights in the UK and Public Law at UCL Laws, said:
‘Gary read for the LLB in 1977 and the LLM at UCL from 1989 to 1991. Gary was an engaging undergraduate who was a pleasure to teach, given his enthusiasm for and curiosity about the law. Subsequent to his studies at UCL, Gary read for his PhD at LSE. He became renowned in his academic career for bringing the law to a much wider range of people than just law students, though his academic publications were widely known to generations of law students, especially his English Legal System, co-authored with David Kelly.
Gary founded the law department and legal studies at the Open University, and made a huge success of distance learning in law. He was also well known for his role advising on numerous television productions about the law and the legal profession, such as The Barristers and Judge John Deed. He was a columnist for the Times, and his columns, Weird Cases, were subsequently published in three book collections. His humour, his care for students, his desire to spread the knowledge of law to a wider public, and his lively personality made him a much-loved academic and lawyer, who will be greatly missed for the huge contribution he has made to legal learning and the public understanding of the law.’