Richard H. Helmholz

Dick Helmholz is an expert in legal history, property law, religion and the law, and natural resources law. His teaching interests have been centered in the law of property and in various aspects of natural resources law. His research interests have been concentrated in legal history. In the latter, his principal contribution has been to show the relevance of the Roman and canon laws to the development of the common law. In recent years he has also turned to the investigation of the history of natural law as it was once put to common use in Continental European, English, and American courts.

In the course of his career, he has been awarded a Fulbright Scholarship, a Guggenheim Fellowship and an Alexander von Humboldt Research Prize. In the 2000-01 academic year, he served as Arthur Goodhart Professor of Law in Cambridge University, where he was also elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a fellow of the Medieval Academy of America, a Member of the American Law Institute, and a corresponding fellow of the British Academy.