Joe Tomlinson

Profile

Biography

Professor Joe Tomlinson

LLB (Hons) (Manchester) PhD (Manchester)

Professor of Public Law

Joe is Professor of Public Law at the University of York. He graduated from the University of Manchester with an LLB (Hons) (2013) and PhD in Law (2017). He was then a Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Sheffield (2016-2018) and King’s College London (2018-2019), before moving to the University of York in 2019 and being appointed to a Chair in 2022. In 2023, he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law.

Joe has held a range of visiting appointments, most recently as a Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School (2024-2025). He has also held visiting posts at the Institute of Advanced Study at Durham University (2024), the UCL Department of Political Science (2022), Melbourne Law School (2018), and Osgoode Hall Law School (2017).

He is currently serving as Chair of the Academic Panel of the Administrative Justice Council, a non-statutory oversight body advising government and the judiciary (2022-). He is also a member of the Academic Panel at Blackstone Chambers (2021-) and a Research Fellow of the Institute for Fiscal Studies, where he co-leads the Transforming Justice Programme (2023-).

Joe was previously an ESRC Parliamentary Academic Fellow in the House of Commons (2019-2020) and served for four years as Research Director of the Public Law Project, a national legal charity (2017-2021). He also spent a period as a Trainee at the EFTA Court, working in President Baudenbacher’s Chambers (2015). He was called to the Bar of England and Wales by Middle Temple (2022).

Joe’s research has been cited in major policy reviews, in both Houses of Parliament, and at all levels in the courts and tribunals, including the High Court, Court of Appeal, and UK Supreme Court. He has also led multiple research partnerships with central government departments, local authorities, and charities.

Research

Overview

Joe’s research focuses on using legal and social science methods to advanceunderstanding of how law and process operate within public sector organisations and how the public experiences law and process in these settings.

Joe currently pursues most of his research through the Administrative Fairness Lab, which he co-founded with Simon Halliday (Strathclyde) and Jed Meers (York). The Lab builds an evidence-led understanding of how law and process shape frontline public services and explores new avenues for achieving improvements in the performance of services.

Joe also co-leads, with Imran Rasul (UCL/IFS) and Abi Adams (Oxford), the Transforming Justice programme at the Institute for Fiscal Studies, which seeks to expand understanding of the justice system through quantitative data and the application of economic methods.

His work has been funded by a wide range of bodies, including the Nuffield Foundation, Leverhulme Trust, National Institute for Health and Care Research,
Research England, and the Abrdn Financial Fairness Trust.

Publications

Selected publications

An updated list of Joe’s publications is maintained on the University of York’s PURE database and also on his personal website. As far as possible, his publications have been made open access. 

Teaching

Postgraduate

Joe is largely focused on research at present. He is currently supervising several research students and postdoctoral researchers. He is happy to speak to prospective postgraduate research students and to support postdoctoral applications in his areas of research.

Other teaching

Joe is regularly invited to deliver guest lectures and has taught in this capacity at several institutions, including New York University, Melbourne University, and the London School of Economics. He is also regularly involved with educational events at Middle Temple.