AV Dicey Biography1

Albert Venn Dicey (1835-1922) was amongst the first academics at LSE, lecturing from 1896-99 and contributing to the School's intellectual development in its formative years.
Called to the Bar in 1863, Dicey had combined a legal career with political journalism during the 1860s and 1870s before his appointment to the Vinerian Chair of English Law at Oxford in 1882. Dicey's reputation rested upon his academic quality. The Law of the Constitution, published in 1885, made his name (Gladstone described it in Parliament as a recognised authority), and his scholarly work was cited in Parliament in the Irish Home Rule question during the 1880s. An 'Old Liberal' in the 1850s, Dicey was disenchanted with Mill by the 1880s. Dicey divided the nineteenth century into 3 phases - 'old Toryism' up to 1830, 'Individualism' or 'Benthamism' up to 1870, succeeded by 'Collectivism'. His analysis was highly influential in shaping subsequent perceptions of the century's political development, and his work marked English political language before 1914. Other works include Conflict of Laws (1896) and Law and Public Opinion in England (1905).