Sir John Cyril Smith CBE QC FBA (15 January 1922 – 14 February 2003), born Barnard Castle, County Durham, was an English legal academic.

Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law is now edited by Professor David Ormerod QC and Karl Laird.

[3] Smith won a scholarship to attend the University of Oxford to read history,[citation needed] but chose not to take it up, instead leaving school to join his father's engineering business.

[4] Smith then enrolled in the British Army, serving in the Royal Artillery during World War II, rising to the rank of Captain.

It was whilst in the army that Smith developed an interest in the law;[4] subsequently, he helped administer courts martial.

[4] In 1954, Smith became a founding member of the editorial board of the Criminal Law Review, to which he would contribute frequently throughout his career.

[3] Smith, in several Criminal Law Review case commentaries, was notably critical[4] of the interpretations of the Theft Acts, particularly DPP v Gomez and R v Hinks.