Dr Robert Taylor

Reader In Public Law

Strathclyde Law School

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Personal statement

Robert joined Strathclyde Law School in August 2025 as a Reader in Public Law.  He had previously been a Reader at the University of Aberdeen School of Law and received his LLB (Hons), MJur and PhD from Durham Law School.

Robert has a particular interest and expertise in: constitutional conventions, constitutional theory, the Anglo-Scottish Union, devolution, delegated legislation, English and Scottish judicial review, retained EU law/assimilated law, comparative legal culture, and abortion law.

Robert has previously published articles in major UK law journals such as the Modern Law Review, Public Law, and the Edinburgh Law Review, as well as in international journals such as Comparative Legal History and Zeitschrift für Parlamentsfragen (ZParl).  He also has book chapters published or forthcoming with leading UK and international publishers such as Cambridge University Press, Edinburgh University Press, Springer, and Fagbokforlaget, as well as a book contract with Hart Publishing for a forthcoming monograph on UK constitutional conventions in 2027.  Robert was a Scottish Parliament Academic Fellow from 2020-21 examining the use of parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation during Brexit and from 2022-23 twice advised the European Scrutiny Committee of the UK Parliament on Retained EU Law and Assimilated Law.  From 2021-22 he was also a Visiting Scholar at Edinburgh Law School researching the constitutional impact of the 1707 Acts of Union.  Robert has further advised BBC Reality Check and STV Scotland Tonight, has been interviewed by Original FM, and has written for the Press and Journal.

Robert is an accomplished teacher in public law with experience in delivering classes on constitutional law, administrative law and human rights law.  He also has experience teaching comparative legal culture at the University of Bergen, Norway, and has acted as an external examiner for both the University of Strathclyde and the University of Stirling.

Robert is highly skilled and experienced in administrative service and is the Director of Policies and Procedures and Deputy Research Director at Strathclyde Law School.  During his time at the University of Aberdeen, he had several major leadership roles within the School of Law including: REF Output Lead, Director of the Aberdeen Centre for Constitutional and Administrative Law (ACCPIL), Academic Line Manager, and LLB Coordinator.  External from the School, Robert was also the Chair of the Aberdeen Humanities Fund and an Executive Council Member of the Friends of the Aberdeen University Library.

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Teaching

Robert is a highly experienced teacher in higher education, and his teaching professionalism was recognised in 2016 when he became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA).

At Strathclyde Law School, Robert teaches constitutional law at both ordinary (level 1) and Honours (level 4).  Since 2019, he has also taught regularly at the University of Bergen, Norway on comparative legal culture, specifically the English legal culture. 

When at the University of Aberdeen, Robert led the public law teaching team, coordinating and teaching two compulsory ordinary modules in public law: UK constitutional law (level 1) and administrative law and civil liberties (level 2).  He also introduced a successful Honours course on constitutional law and led another on administrative law (level 4).

In addition to public law, Robert also has previous extensive experience teaching English equity and trusts, commercial law sale of goods, Scottish and English legal systems, and public international law.

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Research Interests

Robert is a leading researcher in public law – constitutional law, administrative law and human rights law – as it relates to the UK, England, and Scotland, with extensive experience of conducting research both individually and collaboratively.

In the field of constitutional law, Robert has developed a new and unique reconciliatory theory of constitutionalism between its legal and political elements called complementary constitutionalism (2018).  He has also proposed a new way of classifying different types of constitutional conventions (2015), and has further written on constitutional conventions in the context of the Strathclyde Review (2015 and 2016) and Brexit (2016 and 2019).  He is currently working on a monograph on constitutional conventions for Hart Publishing which will advance a new and innovative understanding of the role of constitutional conventions within the UK constitution (forthcoming, 2027).

Robert was a Scottish Parliament Academic Fellow from 2020-21 examining the use of parliamentary scrutiny of delegated legislation during Brexit.  In so doing he produced three co-authored briefing papers for MSPs on the powers and parliamentary processes (2021), the impact on the devolved settlement and future policy direction (2021), and the scrutiny challenges (2021), and advised the European Scrutiny Committee of the UK Parliament on Retained EU Law and Assimilated Law on two separate occasions (2022 and 2023).  He has further published research in this area for an academic audience both domestically (2023) and internationally (2024).  Robert has also examined delegated legislation in the context of student finance and immigration (2023) and has co-created a new test for the identification of delegated legislation in ambiguous cases (forthcoming).

Robert also researches in constitutional and legal history. He has shown that the 1707 union between England and Scotland resulted in the creation of a British common law on constitutional matters whilst leaving some areas of public law between the two nations open to divergence (2025).  He has further advanced a new understanding of the impact of the 1707 Union on the commercial law of Scotland, demonstrating that commercial law should be best understood as encompassing elements of both public law and private law (forthcoming 2026).  Robert has also written a new and original account of the English Legal Culture and its history as part of a leading comparative volume on European legal cultures (forthcoming 2025).

In the field of administrative law and human rights, Robert has written on major judicial review cases, such as Miller (No 1) (2016), Wightman (2018, 2018, and 2018), Cherry/Miller (No 2) (2019), and the Section 35 Veto Case (2023 and forthcoming), as well as on the domestic incorporation of international human rights treaties in Scotland (forthcoming 2025 and 2026).  He has also identified the emergence in Scotland of a new public law action of declarator which is distinct from judicial review following the case of Keatings (2021 and 2021).

Robert also researches in UK abortion law and has published co-authored work in the field examining the operation of the Abortion Act 1967 (2019) as well as the legal challenge to home abortion in Scotland (2018 and 2019).  He has also co-authored an analysis on international and comparative abortion law (forthcoming 2028).

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Contact

Dr Robert Taylor
Reader In Public Law
Strathclyde Law School

Email: robert.b.taylor@strath.ac.uk
Tel: Unlisted