Rory Kelly

Dr Kelly is a Lecturer Above the Bar in the School of Law, specialising in sentencing and criminal law. He serves as Associate Head for Research and is a member of the Irish Centre for Human Rights.

He is co-author of Sentencing and Criminal Justice with Professor Andrew Ashworth, and his research has been published in leading journals including the Modern Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Law Quarterly Review, and Criminal Law Review. His work spans a wide range of topics within criminal law, including retrospective punishment, terrorism, prison labour, stalking, strangulation, behaviour orders, judicial dissent, maximum sentences, and sentencing for multiple offences.

Dr Kelly contributes actively to law and policy reform, including through work with the Sentencing Academy. His research has been cited by courts and public bodies internationally, including by the Chief Justice of Ireland; the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal; the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal; and the District Court of Western Australia. It has also informed work by the Justice Select Committee (UK); the Department of Justice (USA); the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (UK); the Independent Criminal Courts Review (UK); the Independent Terrorism Commission (UK); the Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (UK); the Sentencing Council (UK); the New South Wales Sentencing Council (Australia); the Judicial Policy Research Institute (South Korea); and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

He teaches undergraduate modules in Evidence 1, Evidence 2, and Advanced Criminal Justice, as well as graduate modules in Sentencing and Penal Policy, and Counterterrorism and Human Rights. He has previously taught Criminal Law 2 and Advanced Criminology.

Dr Kelly is open to doctorate proposals on topics within criminal law and sentencing.

Prior to his current position, Dr Kelly worked at University College London, the University of Oxford, and the Law Commission of England and Wales.