Richard H. Helmholz (born 1940) is the Ruth Wyatt Rosenson Distinguished Service Professor of Law at the

University of Chicago Law School The University of Chicago Law School is the Law school in the United States, law school of the University of Chicago, a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois. It employs more than 180 full-time and part-time facul ...

. He received his

LL.B. A Bachelor of Laws (; LLB) is an undergraduate law degree offered in most common law countries as the primary law degree and serves as the first professional qualification for legal practitioners. This degree requires the study of core legal subje ...

from

Harvard Law School Harvard Law School (HLS) is the law school of Harvard University, a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1817, Harvard Law School is the oldest law school in continuous operation in the United ...

in 1965 and also earned an A.B. in French literature at

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, and a Ph.D. in medieval history from the

University of California at Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after the Anglo-Irish philosopher George Berkele ...

Career

He is a member of the

Selden Society The Selden Society is a learned society and registered charity concerned with the study of English legal history. It functions primarily as a text publication society, but also undertakes other activities to promote scholarship within its sphere ...

Council and a fellow of the

American Academy of Arts & Sciences The American Academy of Arts and Sciences (The Academy) is one of the oldest learned societies in the United States. It was founded in 1780 during the American Revolution by John Adams, John Hancock, James Bowdoin, Andrew Oliver, and other F ...

and a corresponding fellow of the

British Academy The British Academy for the Promotion of Historical, Philosophical and Philological Studies is the United Kingdom's national academy for the humanities and the social sciences. It was established in 1902 and received its royal charter in the sa ...

. Before moving to the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

, he spent ten years at

Washington University in St. Louis Washington University in St. Louis (WashU) is a private research university in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Founded in 1853 by a group of civic leaders and named for George Washington, the university spans 355 acres across its Danforth ...

, where he was a professor of law and history. He is best known for his work on the influence of canon law on the common law. His scholarship was cited by Justice

David Souter David Hackett Souter ( ; September 17, 1939 – May 8, 2025) was an American lawyer and jurist who served as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1990 until his retirement in 2009. Appointed by President George H ...

's majority opinion in the 2004 Supreme Court case ''Sosa v. Alvarez-Machain et al.'', 542 U.S. 692.https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/03pdf/03-339.pdf See footnote 15 He teaches property, European legal history, and the law of oil and gas. In 2000–01, Helmholz was the Arthur Goodhart Visiting Professor of Legal Science at the

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

and in Fall 2005, he was a visiting professor at

Selected authored books

*''Natural Law in Court'' http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674504585. *''Marriage Litigation in Medieval England'' (Cambridge University Press, 1974). *''Canon Law and English Common Law'' (Selden Society, 1983). *''The History of the Canon Law and Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction, 597-1649'' (Oxford University Press, 2003) *''Roman Canon Law in Reformation England'' (Cambridge University Press, 2004). *''The Spirit of Classical Canon Law'' (3rd ed.) (University of Georgia Press, 2010).

References

External links

R.H. Helmholz

{{DEFAULTSORT:Helmholz, Richard H. American legal scholars Living people Harvard Law School alumni Princeton University alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni University of Chicago faculty Washington University in St. Louis faculty Corresponding fellows of the British Academy Fellows of the Medieval Academy of America 1940 births Fellows of the Royal Historical Society Fellows of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences