Geoffrey Dawson Lane, Baron Lane, AFC, PC (17 July 1918 – 22 August 2005) was a British barrister and judge who served as Lord Chief Justice of England from 1980 to 1992, having previously served as a Lord of Appeal in Ordinary from 1977 until 1980.

The son of a bank manager, Lane was educated at Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Cambridge. During the Second World War, he served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force, for which he received the Air Force Cross. Called to the English bar in 1946, he practiced with great success, prosecuted in several high-profile criminal cases, and took silk in 1962. He was appointed to the High Court in 1969, sitting in the Queen's Bench Division, was promoted to the Court of Appeal in 1974 and to the House of Lords in 1977. The next year, after only six months in office, he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, serving until his retirement in 1992. A private man, Lane never gave interviews and kept a low public profile until his death in 2005.

The later part of his term was marred by a succession of disputed convictions, though Lane remained highly regarded by his colleagues and the legal profession. Lane's critics claimed that his refusal to believe that police evidence could be institutionally corrupt, and his reluctance to overturn the verdict of a jury, "represented a dangerous hindrance to justice". His failure to allow the appeal of the Birmingham Six in 1988 led to calls for his resignation following their successful appeal in 1991; an editorial in The Times "urged him to go", while 140 members of parliament signed a House of Commons motion to that effect. On his death, the barrister Sir Louis Blom-Cooper declared that "by common consent of the legal profession, Lane was a very great Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales".

The son of a bank manager, Geoffrey Lane was born in Derby. He attended Shrewsbury School and Trinity College, Cambridge where he took Firsts in Part I of the Classical Tripos before the Second World War and both parts of the Law Tripos after he was demobilized. During the war, he served as a pilot in the Royal Air Force. Initially, he flew Wellington Bombers for 104 Squadron, before being promoted to squadron leader to command 233 Squadron, which flew Dakota transport aircraft in D-Day and Operation Market Garden. He was awarded the Air Force Cross in 1943.

Lane was called to the bar at Gray's Inn in 1946. He specialised in criminal prosecutions on the Midland and Oxford circuit, and took silk in 1962. He prosecuted some of the Great Train robbers and the murderer James Hanratty in the same year, and was appointed as Recorder of Bedford in 1963.

While appearing for the defendant in the case of R v Morris, he made a much-cited statement as to what constituted 'common purpose' for the criminal law, which Lord Parker of Waddington CJ adopted:

He is also famous for his quote: "Loss of freedom seldom happens overnight. Oppression doesn't stand on the doorstep with toothbrush moustache and swastika armband – it creeps up insidiously... step by step, and all of a sudden the unfortunate citizen realizes that it is gone."

Later in 1966, Lane was appointed a Justice of the High Court, assigned to the Queen's Bench Division, receiving the customary knighthood. He was elected a Bencher at Gray's Inn the same year.