Dr Rory Kelly

LLB, MSc, DPhil

Contact Details

Lecturer Above The Bar
School of Law
College of Business, Law, and Public Policy
E: Rory.Kelly@universityofgalway.ie
 
researcher
 

Biography

I teach and research across criminal law with a particular interest in sentencing.

This Year I am teaching 
Evidence 1; Evidence 2; Sentencing and Penal Policy, Counterterrorism and Human Rights; and Advanced Criminal Justice. I have previously also taught Criminal Law 2.

 I co-author Sentencing and Criminal Justice, and my research has been published in leading generalist and criminal law journals.
 I have written on Prison Labour, stalking, strangulation, behaviour orders, judicial dissent, maximum sentences, and sentencing for multiple offences amongst other topics. I have three ongoing research projects: 1. retrospective law and sentencing reform; 2. strangulation and belief in consent; 3. the new stalking and harassment offences.

My research has been cited by the Northern Ireland Court of Appeal; the New South Wales Court of Criminal Appeal; and the District Court of Western Australia.

It has also been relied on by  the Justice Select Committee (UK); the Department of Justice (USA); the Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation (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 (Korea) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.

I also engage in law and policy reform to include with JUSTICE, the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies, and the Sentencing Academy. 

 I have previously worked at University College of London, the University of Oxford, and the Law Commission of England and Wales.  

Peer Reviewed Journals

  Year Publication
(2025) 'Strangulation and Belief in Consent'
Rory Kelly and David Ormerod (2025) 'Strangulation and Belief in Consent'. Criminal Law Review, [Details]
(2024) 'Harassment and Stalking'
Rory Kelly (2024) 'Harassment and Stalking'. Irish Jurist, (72) [Details]
(2024) 'Prison Labour as Punishment'
Rory Kelly (2024) 'Prison Labour as Punishment'. European Labour Law Journal, [Details]
(2023) 'Reforming the Sentencing and Release of Terrorist Offenders'
Rory Kelly (2023) 'Reforming the Sentencing and Release of Terrorist Offenders'. Criminal Law Review, (10) [Details]
(2022) 'Criminalising Dissent'
Rory Kelly (2022) 'Criminalising Dissent'. Law Quarterly Review, 138 (July) [Details]
(2022) 'Totality Principle and Practice'
Rory Kelly (2022) 'Totality Principle and Practice'. Criminal Law Review, (7) [Details]
(2021) 'Reducing the Use of Short Custodial Sentences'
Andrew Ashworth and Rory Kelly (2021) 'Reducing the Use of Short Custodial Sentences'. Archbold Review, [Details]
(2021) 'Non-fatal Strangulation and Suffocation'
Rory Kelly and David Ormerod (2021) 'Non-fatal Strangulation and Suffocation'. Criminal Law Review, (7) [Details]
(2020) 'The Problematic Development of the Stalking Protection Order'
Rory Kelly (2020) 'The Problematic Development of the Stalking Protection Order'. Modern Law Review, 83 (2) [Details]
(2020) 'Terrorism and Retrospective Punishment'
Rory Kelly (2020) 'Terrorism and Retrospective Punishment'. European Human Rights Law Review, (2) [Details]
(2020) 'Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and Necessity'
Rory Kelly and HHJ Martin Picton (2020) 'Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and Necessity'. Criminal Law Review, (5) [Details]
(2019) 'Sentencing Terrorism Offences: No Harm Intended?'
Rory Kelly (2019) 'Sentencing Terrorism Offences: No Harm Intended?'. Criminal Law Review, (9) [Details]
(2019) 'Reconsidering the Punishment-Prevention Divide'
Rory Kelly (2019) 'Reconsidering the Punishment-Prevention Divide'. Law Quarterly Review, 135 (Jan) [Details]
(2018) 'Reforming Maximum Sentences and Respecting Ordinal Proportionality'
Rory Kelly (2018) 'Reforming Maximum Sentences and Respecting Ordinal Proportionality'. Criminal Law Review, (6) [Details]
(2018) 'A Dangerous Presumption for Risk-based Sentencing?'
Lyndon Harris and Rory Kelly (2018) 'A Dangerous Presumption for Risk-based Sentencing?'. Law Quarterly Review, 134 (July) [Details]
(2017) 'The Right to a Fair Trial and the Problem of Pre-inchoate Offences'
Rory Kelly (2017) 'The Right to a Fair Trial and the Problem of Pre-inchoate Offences'. European Human Rights Law Review, (6) [Details]

Books

  Year Publication
(2021) Sentencing and Criminal Justice.
Andrew Ashworth and Rory Kelly (2021) Sentencing and Criminal Justice. Oxford: Hart. [Details]

Book Chapters

  Year Publication
(2018) 'State Responses to Criminal Offences in England and Wales and the Problem of Equality'
Rory Kelly and Andrew Ashworth (2018) 'State Responses to Criminal Offences in England and Wales and the Problem of Equality' In: The Limits of the Criminal Law. Cambridge: Intersentia. [Details]