Dr Martin David Kelly

Lecturer in Legal Theory

MA, LLM, MSc, PhD

Tel: +44 (0)131 650 2008

Email: martin.kelly@ed.ac.uk

View my publications

Martin joined the School of Law in 2021 as a Lecturer in Legal Theory. His research focuses on law and its relationship to language. Martin combines an extensive knowledge of law (gained over a decade in legal professional practice) with a deep understanding of how language works. 

Martin’s research covers several disciplines: especially law, linguistics, and philosophy. It engages with — has important implications for — virtually every field of law. His key focus is on identifying the content that we express when we use language; and, in legal contexts, the content that lawmakers express when they use language to create laws. These include not only the law-making acts of ‘state’ actors (in making constitutions, legislation, precedents, etc.), but also those of ‘private’ actors (in making contracts, wills, trusts, leases, etc.). But what he calls ‘legally-relevant uses of language’ also include statements that may be defamatory, or might be misrepresentations (or false advertisements or trade descriptions), or which may amount to hate speech (or incitements to violence), etc. Thus Martin’s research covers an exceptionally broad range of legal fields — especially contract law, tort/delict law, criminal law, succession law, media law, commercial law, property law, and public/constitutional law — and it has implications for all jurisdictions, globally.

Martin completed his undergraduate degree at the University of Cambridge, where he read Natural Sciences (specialising in chemistry). After studying law in York, he qualified as a Solicitor (England & Wales). He then practiced law for 10 years, mainly in London, advising clients on several areas of law - including over three years working as part of a team advising the Queen and the Royal Family - before specialising in revenue law. During his time in legal practice, Martin completed an LLM at King's College, London, and he qualified as a member of the Society of Trusts and Estates Practitioners (STEP).

Martin left professional practice to undertake an MSc in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh, where he specialised in the philosophy of language and wrote his dissertation on Wittgenstein’s reflections on rule-following. He then conducted his AHRC-funded doctoral research project at Edinburgh Law School. His PhD thesis —  “The Loquacious Legislature: are statutes ‘always speaking’?” — explains the ways in which legal content may change over time, and applies this theory to the problem of ‘originalism’ (via a deep analysis of the UK’s statutory interpretation case-law).

Martin is interested in supervising projects in legal theory (broadly construed) and particularly those which focus on the relationship between law and language. He also has expertise in legal reasoning and argumentation, and he has taught extensively on the Critical Legal Thinking course at Edinburgh Law School. Martin’s other philosophical interests include ethics (particularly metaethics), logic, and political theory. 

Martin leads the compulsory 2nd-year Jurisprudence course at Edinburgh. He also has a particular interest in public/constitutional law: he teaches a seminar-based Honours (3rd- and 4th-year) course called ‘Public Law Interpretation’, and he previously led the full-year Honours course ‘Law, Democracy, and Citizenship’. Martin has also designed a new Masters (LLM) course, called ‘Legal Interpretation’, which he plans to teach in future years.

Martin is the Deputy Director of the Edinburgh Centre for Legal Theory and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Global Justice Academy.

Bluesky: @philosophy-law.bsky.social

Twitter: @Philosophy_Law