Albert Venn Dicey died at his home on Banbury Road in Oxford on 7 April 1922, at the age of 87. Three days later, he was buried at St Sepulchre’s Cemetery, off Walton Street (see photograph at p. 108). His wife of 50 years, Elinor, survived him by 19 months and is buried alongside him.

Almost 100 years later, one of us (a student of the conflict of laws) ventured to the Cemetery in search of Dicey’s resting place. The site has been carefully tended in recent years by volunteers, but many of the gravestones understandably show signs of age. In Dicey’s case, this is something of a metaphor, for his reputation as a legal scholar and political thinker has encountered heavy weather in recent times. Dicey, no doubt, would have accepted some of this commentary as fair – as an individual, he was conscious of his own fallibilities and not averse to acts of self-criticism. In some part, however, he has been disadvantaged by a modern inclination to pass judgement according to contemporary facilities, knowledge, and standards, and a tendency to highlight failings in the midst of achievements. As editors, we are in no doubt that the dedication to Dicey as having been ‘honoured and loved as a great teacher and a true friend’ was truly deserved. The honest and earnest dedication with which he approached his life’s work shines from the page, and his two most important works on The Law of the Constitution and The Conflict of Laws live on as testaments to his academic endeavour.

That visit prompted the idea that the centenary of Dicey’s death ought to be marked by an event in Oxford, where he had studied (at Balliol College) and spent much of his life (as a Fellow of Trinity College and, later, as Vinerian Professor of English Law and a Fellow of All Souls College).