During the English Civil War, he was a Royalist and was appointed by Oliver Cromwell to a special commission of oyer and terminer.
in 1619, was admitted at Doctor's Commons, London, in January 1618, and was appointed Regius Professor of Civil Law at Oxford in 1620.
[3] Under the Commonwealth, having submitted to the parliamentary visitors, he retained his university appointments,[2] and was appointed by Oliver Cromwell to a special commission of oyer and terminer (consisting of three judges, three civilians, and three laymen, for the trial of Don Pantaleone Sa, the brother of the Portuguese ambassador, for murder committed in a brawl).
[2] According to Thomas Erskine Holland writing in the Dictionary of National Biography, Jeremy Bentham's coinage "international law" derives from the phrase jus inter gentes implied by Zouch's 1650 choice of title.
Holland also identifies both Zouch and Arthur Duck as pupils of distinction of the civilian John Budden, in the Oxford tradition founded by Alberico Gentili.