Ryan Scott

Constitutional Law, Criminal Law, Property Law, Admiralty Law, Treasure Law

Courses Taught:
Property Law, Florida Criminal Law and Procedure

Professor Ryan Scott is a scholar of criminal law, constitutional law, admiralty, and treasure law.

He currently serves as Assistant Professor of Law at Barry University's Dwayne O. Andreas School of Law and previously served as a Fellow in Practice at the University of Florida Levin College of Law from 2023 to 2026. His current research focuses on the complex constitutional issues surrounding the judicial contempt power, as well as the constitutional and property law issues surrounding shipwrecks and treasure salvage.

Professor Scott's scholarship has appeared in leading law reviews, including Salvaging Article III, 59 U.C. Davis L. Rev. 961 (2025), on the constitutional dimensions of admiralty and salvage jurisdiction, and Contempt: The Original Judicial Cheat Code, 129 Dickinson L. Rev. 181 (2024), on the historical and doctrinal foundations of the contempt power. His article The Hidden Law of the Adamant Contemnor is forthcoming in the U.C. Davis Law Review in 2026, and he is currently working to complete a new article, The Duty of Police Perfection.

His work on contempt and salvage law has drawn national attention, including coverage in the Tampa Bay Times, the Associated Press, and The Hill. He has also translated his scholarship into practice, filing an amicus brief before the Eleventh Circuit in Global Marine Exploration, Inc. v. Republic of France and a motion to unseal court records in In re Maurice M., a case tied to the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Baltimore City Department of Social Services v. Bouknight. He has presented his work at the AALS Annual Meeting, the Florida State University and Loyola University Chicago Constitutional Law Colloquium, the University of Detroit Mercy School of Law's Edmund Fitzgerald Symposium on admiralty law, the University of Florida's Criminal Law and Policing Symposium, and the Nimmons Federal Practice Seminar among other venues.

Professor Scott earned his J.D. with honors from the University of Florida Levin College of Law, where he held the full-tuition, merit-based Governor's Scholarship, made the Dean's List every semester, and received book awards in Corporations, Securities Regulation, and Cybersecurity & Cybercrimes.

In addition to his typical law school duties, he represented law students on the UF Faculty Senate and the university's Core Values-Presidential Advisory Council. He also gained courtroom and government experience, externing for Circuit Judge Howard McGillin of Florida's Seventh Judicial Circuit, interning for U.S. Magistrate Judge Philip Lammens of the Middle District of Florida, and investigating an actual-innocence claim for the Fourth Judicial Circuit State Attorney's Office Conviction Integrity Review Unit. For a few years, he also clerked for the General Counsel of Axogen, Inc. (NASDAQ: AXGN) on securities, cybersecurity, and ESG governance matters.

Professor Scott is admitted to the Florida state courts, the U.S. District Courts for the Northern, Middle, and Southern Districts of Florida, the U.S. Tax Court, and the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Prior to entering academia, Professor Scott spent a decade in criminal justice and law enforcement, experience that continues to inform his teaching and his scholarship on policing and the role of criminal justice. His law enforcement experience was molded by his experiences with the High Springs Police Department, the Alachua County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Marshals Service. For many years, he was an Adjunct Professor at Santa Fe College, teaching new police recruits Florida criminal law, use-of-force doctrine, and criminal investigations through the State of Florida Basic Police Recruit curriculum. He also served as a field training officer for new officers and completed thousands of hours of advanced law enforcement instruction, including certifications as a firearms and use-of-force instructor, traffic homicide investigator, forensic photographer, crime scene technician, and active shooter tactics instructor.

Bridging law enforcement and scientific research, Professor Scott has also conducted research in Mechanical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, Pharmacology and Therapeutics, and most recently Audiology. His peerreviewed audiology research at the University of Florida examined noise-induced hearing loss among firearms users, for which he received the 2017 Safe-in-Sound Award from the National Hearing Conservation Association and the CDC's National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health; he continues to present this research to law enforcement agencies nationwide.

In his free time, Professor Scott is an accomplished scuba diver and a private pilot. He holds advanced technical, cave, closed-circuit rebreather, and salvage diving certifications. He has logged more than 1,200 dives, giving him a practitioner's perspective on the treasure salvage and admiralty law questions central to his scholarship. He also holds an FAA private pilot certificate for single-engine land aircraft and loves flying to new destinations.

Media

• Deputy probed after fatal DUI crash remains on Job as case advances, NAPLES DAILY
  NEWS (June 2026).
• Tommy Thompson salvages his freedom: his 10-year imprisonment exposes a flawed
  legal system, TAMPA BAY TIMES (March 2026).
• ‘Ship of Gold’ treasure hunter released from prison, but 500 gold coins remain unaccounted for, AP NEWS (March 10, 2026).
• Treasure hunter Tommy Thompson wins a legal battle, TAMPA BAY TIMES (February 25,
  2025).
• Contempt unconstrained: Are judges taking their power too far?, THE HILL (June 24,
  2024).
• Why is this treasure hunter still sitting in jail?, TAMPA BAY TIMES (June 4, 2024).

Presentations.

• Jacksonville Federal Court Bar Association, Nimmons Federal Practice Seminar, Insights from Police Body Worn Cameras, with Melissa Nelson and David Barksdale (April 2026).
• University of Florida Levin College of Law, Criminal Law and Policing Symposium, Examining Aspects of Law and Policing, with Melissa Nelson and David Barksdale (February 2026).
• Florida State University College of Law & Loyola University Chicago School of Law, Constitutional Law Colloquium , Salvaging Article III (November 2025).
• Detroit Mercy School of Law, Edmund Fitzgerald Symposium, Modern Salvage and Admiralty Laws (November 2025).  
• AALS Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA
  New Perspectives on Empirical Studies of Legal Education and the Legal Profession,Transforming Law School Exams through Large Language Models, Jan. 2025