 His father was Milan Bratza, a Serbian concert violinist who settled in London after the First World War, and his mother, an operatic singer, came from the Russell family, which has produced three generations of Law Lords (Charles Russell, Frank Russell and Charles Ritchie Russell).He studied Law at Brasenose College, Oxford, and was awarded a first class degree.He then spent two years teaching at the University of Pennsylvania Law School before being called to the bar at Lincoln's Inn in 1969, where he was a Hardwicke and Droop Scholar.