Adam Tomkins (born 28 June 1969) is a British academic and politician who is the John Millar Professor of Public Law at the University of Glasgow School of Law. A member of the

Scottish Conservatives The Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party (), known as Scottish Tories, is part of the UK Conservative Party (UK), Conservative Party active in Scotland. It currently holds 5 of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Ki ...

, he was a

Member of the Scottish Parliament Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP; ; ) is the title given to any one of the 129 individuals elected to serve in the Scottish Parliament. Electoral system The additional member system produces a form of proportional representation, where ...

(MSP) for the

Glasgow Glasgow is the Cities of Scotland, most populous city in Scotland, located on the banks of the River Clyde in Strathclyde, west central Scotland. It is the List of cities in the United Kingdom, third-most-populous city in the United Kingdom ...

region from

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

to 2021, when he stood down for that year's elections. Previously a constitutional advisor to the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

Constitution Committee, he was made constitutional advisor to the

Scotland Office The Scotland Office (Scottish Gaelic: ''An Oifis Albannach''), known as the Office of the Secretary of State for Scotland from 2018 to 2024, is a department of His Majesty's Government headed by the secretary of state for Scotland and respon ...

and

Secretary of State for Scotland The secretary of state for Scotland (; ), also referred to as the Scottish secretary, is a Secretary of State (United Kingdom), secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, with responsibility for the Scotland Office. The incum ...

David Mundell in 2015. He was the Convener of the Justice Committee, having previously held the portfolio of strategy, communities, social security, the constitution and equalities.

Academia

Tomkins was educated at Gillingham School, the

University of East Anglia The University of East Anglia (UEA) is a Public university, public research university in Norwich, England. Established in 1963 on a campus university, campus west of the city centre, the university has four faculties and twenty-six schools of ...

( LL.B., 1990) and the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

( LL.M., 1991). He taught at the School of Law of

King's College London King's College London (informally King's or KCL) is a public university, public research university in London, England. King's was established by royal charter in 1829 under the patronage of George IV of the United Kingdom, King George IV ...

between 1991 and 2000 and became a

fellow A fellow is a title and form of address for distinguished, learned, or skilled individuals in academia, medicine, research, and industry. The exact meaning of the term differs in each field. In learned society, learned or professional society, p ...

at St Catherine's College,

Oxford Oxford () is a City status in the United Kingdom, cathedral city and non-metropolitan district in Oxfordshire, England, of which it is the county town. The city is home to the University of Oxford, the List of oldest universities in continuou ...

in 2000, before being elected to the John Millar Chair of Law at Glasgow in 2003. His research interests lie in constitutional theory and history, British, EU and comparative constitutional law. Tomkins has published seven books in the areas of

constitutional A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

, administrative and

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

law, including two, ''Public Law'' (2003) and ''British Government and the Constitution'' (2007, with Colin Turpin), which are amongst the most widely used by law students in the United Kingdom. Tomkins has held visiting appointments at the Universities of

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

Queensland Queensland ( , commonly abbreviated as Qld) is a States and territories of Australia, state in northeastern Australia, and is the second-largest and third-most populous state in Australia. It is bordered by the Northern Territory, South Austr ...

and

New South Wales New South Wales (commonly abbreviated as NSW) is a States and territories of Australia, state on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of :Australia. It borders Queensland to the north, Victoria (state), Victoria to the south, and South ...

and the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public university, public research university and member of the Group of Eight (Australian universities), Group of Eight, located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton, A ...

, and has lectured throughout the world. In April 2009, Tomkins became associated with Ampersand, a stable at the

Faculty of Advocates The Faculty of Advocates () is an independent body of lawyers who have been admitted to practise as advocates before the courts of Scotland, especially the Court of Session and the High Court of Justiciary. The Faculty of Advocates is a const ...

, as part of its ''Ampersand Academics'' link between practitioners and academics. Professor Douglas Brodie, former head of the School of Law at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...

, has also joined this project. In 2009 he was appointed legal adviser to the

Constitution Committee. He was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society of Edinburgh The Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity that operates on a wholly independent and non-partisan basis and provides public benefit throughout Scotland. It was establis ...

in 2014.

Politics

During the 2014 Scottish

independence referendum An independence referendum is a type of referendum in which the residents of a territory decide whether the territory should become an Independence, independent sovereign state. An independence referendum that results in a vote for independenc ...

, Tomkins was a leading unionist campaigner. After the referendum Tomkins was one of two Scottish Conservative representatives appointed to the Smith Commission. He has also been appointed as unpaid adviser to

David Mundell during the passage of the Scotland Bill through parliament. In August 2015, Tomkins announced his intention to stand as a

for the

in the 2016 election. In a blog explaining his decision, he was highly critical of the

Scottish National Party The Scottish National Party (SNP; ) is a Scottish nationalist and social democratic party. The party holds 61 of the 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament, and holds 9 out of the 57 Scottish seats in the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, ...

's actions in

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

at Holyrood, and praised many policies of the

Conservative government Conservative or Tory government may refer to: Canada In Canadian politics, a Conservative government may refer to the following governments administered by the Conservative Party of Canada or one of its historical predecessors: * 1st Canadian Min ...

Westminster Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...

. He was elected a list member of the

Scottish Parliament The Scottish Parliament ( ; ) is the Devolution in the United Kingdom, devolved, unicameral legislature of Scotland. It is located in the Holyrood, Edinburgh, Holyrood area of Edinburgh, and is frequently referred to by the metonym 'Holyrood'. ...

for the Glasgow Region in the

2016 Scottish Parliament election The 2016 Scottish parliament election was held on Thursday, 5 May 2016 to elect 129 members to the Scottish Parliament. It was the fifth Next Scottish Parliament election, election held since the devolved parliament was established in 1999. It ...

. He previously sat on the Finance Committee and the Social Security Committee in the Scottish Parliament and then served as the Justice Committee convener. Between 2016 and August 2020, he served on the Scottish Conservatives Shadow Cabinet. On 17 July 2020, Tomkins released a statement announcing his intention to stand down as an MSP at the next election due in May 2021 for personal reasons related to work and family. In April 2021, Tomkins wrote an article in ''

The Spectator ''The Spectator'' is a weekly British political and cultural news magazine. It was first published in July 1828, making it the oldest surviving magazine in the world. ''The Spectator'' is politically conservative, and its principal subject a ...

'' calling for a new law to define when constituent nations of the United Kingdom could hold independence referendums. The call was criticised by the Scottish Greens and SNP. In 2022, following the mini-budget of

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...

and Kwasi Kwarteng, Tomkins said it was "inevitable" that the Conservatives would lose next election. In August 2024, Tomkins revealed to journalists Bernard Ponsonby and Alex Massie, that he had voted for the Labour Party in the

2024 United Kingdom general election The 2024 United Kingdom general election was held on Thursday, 4 July 2024 to elect all 650 members of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons. The opposition Labour Party (UK), Labour Party, led by Keir Starmer, won a lan ...

, opting to support

Scottish Labour Scottish Labour (), is the part of the UK Labour Party (UK), Labour Party active in Scotland. Ideologically social democratic and Unionism in the United Kingdom, unionist, it holds 23 of 129 seats in the Scottish Parliament and 37 of 57 Sco ...

candidate Blair McDougall in

East Renfrewshire East Renfrewshire (; ) is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It was formed in 1996, as a successor to the Eastwood (district), Eastwood district of the Strathclyde region. The northeastern part of the council area is close to Glasgow and ma ...

Works

From

British Library The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom. Based in London, it is one of the largest libraries in the world, with an estimated collection of between 170 and 200 million items from multiple countries. As a legal deposit li ...

catalogue (Accessed October 2015). * ''Understanding human rights''. (1996, London: Mansell edited by Conor Gearty and Adam Tomkins) * ''The constitution after Scott: government unwrapped'' (1998) * ''Devolution and the British constitution'' (1998) * ''Sceptical essays on human right'' (2001: edited by Tom Campbell, K.D. Ewing, and Adam Tomkins) * ''Public Law'' (2003) * ''Our Republican constitution'' (2005) * ''How We Should Rule Ourselves'' (2005: Alasdair Gray, Adam Tomkins) * ''The executive and public law : power and accountability in comparative perspective'' (2006: edited by Paul Craig and Adam Tomkins) * ''European Union public law : text and materials'' (2007: Damian Chalmers, Adam Tomkins) * ''British government and the constitution: text and materials'' (2011: Colin Turpin, Adam Tomkins) * ''The legal protection of human rights : sceptical essays'' (2011: edited by Tom Campbell, K.D. Ewing and Adam Tomkins)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tomkins, Adam 1969 births Living people Alumni of the University of East Anglia Alumni of the London School of Economics Conservative MSPs Members of the Scottish Parliament 2016–2021 Academics of the University of Glasgow Academics of King's College London Fellows of St Catherine's College, Oxford British legal scholars Scholars of constitutional law Legal scholars of the University of Oxford Fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh British legal writers