Marcel Berlins

Marcel Berlins (30 October 1941 – 31 July 2019) was a French lawyer, writer and broadcaster. He was best known for his work in the United Kingdom, writing for British national newspapers The Times and The Guardian, presenting BBC Radio 4's legal programme Law in Action for 16 years, and teaching Media Law at City, University of London.

Biography Berlins was born in Marseille, France, on 30 October 1941, the only child of Jacques Berlins and his wife, Pearl. Of Latvian-Jewish heritage, they had moved to France to open a hotel. When the country was occupied by the Nazis in 1940, Jacques became active in the Resistance; the family moved to a village near Luberon. There Berlins learnt English, reputedly in part through reading the works of Agatha Christie. Berlins studied law at the University of the Witwatersrand and spent his early career in the courts in Johannesburg.

Berlins wrote a weekly column for The Guardian, and regularly reviewed crime fiction for The Times. He devised and presented, for London Weekend Television, the first television drama-documentary to feature real lawyers and judges doing their job and created and edited the award-winning publication The Law Magazine.

Berlins was a visiting professor at City, University of London, in the Department of Journalism. He taught Media Law to students on the Postgraduate Diplomas in Broadcast Journalism, Magazine Journalism, Newspaper Journalism and Television Current Affairs Journalism, as well as the BA in Journalism and a Social Science.

Berlins was played piano throughout his life, including stints at a club in Lourenço Marques in Mozambique, and at the public piano in St Pancras railway station.

Berlins is survived by his widow and a stepson and a stepdaughter.

Books Caught in the Act (1974), (with Geoffrey Wansell), a study of young offenders and their treatment Ramesh Maharaj, Barrister Behind Bars (1979), the true story of a Trinidadian lawyer’s detention Living Together (1982), (with Clare Dyer), on the legal pitfalls of cohabitation The Law Machine (1982), (with Clare Dyer), the evolution of the justice system evolved and how it operates The Law and You (1986), for the Consumers’ Association, examining aspects of consumer law

Plays Best of Motives (2002), (with Lisa Forrell), about antiterrorism laws after the September 11 attacks