Joe Tomlinson

BIO

Joe is Professor of Administrative Law at The Dickson Poon School of Law, King's College London. He co-directs the Administrative Fairness Lab and is part of the leadership of the justice programme at the Institute for Fiscal Studies. Joe is also Distinguished Global Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame.

In 2023, Joe was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize in Law, for his research on administrative justice and socio-legal studies. In 2025, he received a Discovery Award from the Wellcome Trust, as Principal Investigator. 

He has held visiting positions around the world, including as Senior Research Scholar at Yale Law School, as Visiting Scholar at Melbourne Law School, and as Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Durham University.

Joe is a Member of the Academic Panel at Blackstone Chambers and a Trustee of the Public Law Project. His previous external roles include serving as Chair of the Administrative Justice Council's Academic Panel, as an ESRC Parliamentary Academic Fellow in the House of Commons, and as Research Director of the Public Law Project.

Joe currently serves as an Articles Editor for the Oxford Journal of Legal Studies. He is also on the Editorial Committee for Public Law, the International Advisory Board for Legal Studies, and the Advisory Board for Current Legal Problems.

Before moving to King's College, Joe was Professor of Public Law at the University of York and, prior to that, Lecturer in Public Law at the University of Sheffield. He studied for his LLB and PhD at the University of Manchester, and was called to the Bar by Middle Temple.

RESEARCH

Joe’s principal research interest is in how government bureaucracy can be more just, and the effects this can have on society. He works across a range of sectors, including welfare, mental health, and social care, and is particularly interested how digital and AI systems are reshaping administration. He co-leads, with Dr Jed Meers, the Administrative Fairness Lab, an interdisciplinary research group focused on addressing these questions.

His second area of research is the economic and empirical study of justice systems, with a particular interest in administrative justice institutions such as tribunals. He co-leads, with Professor Imran Rasul OBE, the Transforming Justice programme at the Institute for Fiscal Studies.

TEACHING

Joe is currently primarily research-focused but occasionally teaches on the Public Law course at King's. He also teaches courses at Notre Dame Law School, via the London Law Programme. He has undertaken guest teaching at a range of institutions, including the London School of Economics, University of Melbourne, Indiana University Bloomington, and New York University. He also regularly gives Qualifying Sessions at Middle Temple.

Joe currently has some capacity to take on PhD supervisions and is especially interested in projects that align closely with his research interests and fit within the Administrative Fairness Lab and the Transforming Justice programme.