Dr Tarik Olcay is a constitutional lawyer and legal theorist working primarily on constitutional change from doctrinal, theoretical, comparative, and empirical perspectives.

Dr Olcay has a multi-disciplinary background with degrees in law, political science, philosophy, and economics. He specialises in constitutional law and legal theory, and his main research interests lie in constitutional theory, comparative constitutional law, natural law theories, and law and technology. His research to date has been funded by institutions including the British Academy (BA), AHRC Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), the US National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Scottish Council on Global Affairs (SCGA). His PhD, completed in 2018 at the University of Glasgow, studied the justifications of constitutional unamendability from theoretical and comparative perspectives.

He currently provides consultancy to the Council of Europe on matters of constitutional justice, functioning of constitutional courts, and dissemination of the standards of the European Convention on Human Rights. He previously advised governments, national and international NGOs, and individuals on matters of constitution-making, constitutional reform, and human rights law. He is regularly invited to give seminars and talks in the fields of constitutional theory and constitutional change, and acts as peer-reviewer for leading academic journals in law, philosophy, and political science. His work has been cited favourably by, among others, the Constitutional Court of Slovenia and the Supreme Court of Kenya, and the High Court of Lesotho, as well as in amicus curiae submissions to the European Court of Human Rights.

Dr Olcay convenes the Law Reading Group in Dundee Law School, as well as co-convening the Inter-disciplinary Theory Reading Group with his colleagues in Humanities. He is Postgraduate Research Director for Dundee Law School, and the University’s constituency representative with the Society of Legal Scholars.

Dr Olcay is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA). He currently serves as an External Examiner at the School of Law, University of Strathclyde, and is a reviewer for the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities (SGSAH) and the British Council. He is also a member of the Constitutional Law and Human Rights Sub-committee of the Law Society of Scotland.

Dr Olcay is Centre of Law and Society Visiting Fellow at Cardiff University in Spring 2025.