Boyle graduated from the University of Glasgow in 1980 and subsequently studied at Harvard Law School.

[3] The courses he teaches include "Intellectual Property", "The Constitution in Cyberspace", "Law and Literature", "Jurisprudence", and "Torts".

[3] He is the author of The Line: AI & The Future of Personhood,[7] Shamans, Software and Spleens: Law and Construction of the Information Society[8] as well as a novel published under a Creative Commons license, The Shakespeare Chronicles.

[9][10] In his work on intellectual property, The Public Domain: Enclosing the Commons of the Mind (2008), Boyle argues that the current system of copyright protections fails to fulfill the original intent of copyright: rewarding and encouraging creativity.

In 2011, Boyle was one of five experts consulted for the Hargreaves Review of Intellectual Property and Growth, a comprehensive analysis of the United Kingdom's intellectual property system that made suggestions for data-driven reform of the system.