James Hamilton Tully (born 1946) is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Political Science, Law, Indigenous Governance and Philosophy at the University of Victoria, Canada. His research and teaching comprise a public philosophy that is grounded in place (Canada) yet reaches out to the world of civic engagement with the problems of our time. He does this in ways that strive to contribute to dialogue between academics and citizens. For example, his research areas include the Canadian experience of coping with the deep diversity of multicultural and multinational citizenship; relationships between indigenous and non-indigenous people; and the emergence of citizenship of the living earth as the ground of sustainable futures.
Tully is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and Emeritus Fellow of the Trudeau Foundation. In May 2014, he was awarded the University of Victoria’s David H. Turpin Gold Medal for Career Achievement in Research. In 2011, he received the Thousand Waves Peacemaker Award. In 2010, he was awarded the prestigious Killam prize in recognition of his distinguished career and exceptional contributions to Canadian scholarship and public life. Also in 2010, he was awarded the C.B. Macpherson Prize by the Canadian Political Science Association for the "best book in political theory written in English or French" in Canada 2008-10 for his 2008 two-volume Public Philosophy in a New Key.
James Tully is one of the four general editors of the Cambridge University Press Ideas in Context Series. He first gained his reputation for his scholarship on the political philosophy of John Locke, and has written on constitutionalism, diversity, indigenous politics, recognition theory, multiculturalism, and the problem of imperialism. He was special advisor to the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (1991–1995).
Tully has held positions at McGill University, the University of Toronto, Cambridge University, Oxford University, and the University of Victoria.