Stephen Tierney KC

Global Distinguished Professor of Law
Notre Dame London Law Programme

Home Affiliation: Professor of Constitutional Theory, University of Edinburgh Law School

Stephen Tierney KC (Hon) FRSE is Professor of Constitutional Theory at the University of Edinburgh Law School. He is an Honorary King’s Counsel, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, and has held a British Academy Senior Research Fellowship and an ESRC Senior Research Fellowship.

Professor Tierney served as Vice Dean of Edinburgh Law School from 2017-20 and is a qualified solicitor. He works as Legal Adviser to the House of Lords Constitution Committee and was a commissioner of the Judicial Appointments Board for Scotland, 2015-2024. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the UK Constitutional Law Association and for four years edited the United Kingdom Constitutional Law blog.

Professor Tierney’s research interests are in constitutional theory and United Kingdom and comparative constitutional law. He has published ten books, including three monographs with Oxford University Press: Constitutional Law and National Pluralism (2004), Constitutional Referendums: The Theory and Practice of Republican Deliberation (2012), and The Federal Contract: A Constitutional Theory of Federalism (2022).

Global Spotlight Lecture Series

Professor Tierney presented "Parliament’s Role in the Brexit Process" in November 2020.