Charles Donahue

Charles Donahue is the Paul A. Freund Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where he has taught since 1980. He specializes in legal history, with a focus on medieval and early modern European legal systems. Donahue holds a B.A. from Harvard College and an LL.B. from Yale Law School. His research emphasizes private law, property, and the intersection of law and religion, particularly medieval canon law. He has authored influential works on marriage litigation in medieval courts and the Oxford History of the Laws of England. Donahue has held visiting appointments at institutions such as the London School of Economics and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Education: A.B. in Classics and English (Harvard, 1962); LL.B. (Yale, 1965).

Research Interests: Medieval legal history, Roman law, European legal systems, marriage law, and the history of property rights. His work bridges comparative law and legal historiography.

Awards: Fellow of the Royal Historical Society (1986), Docteur honoris causa from University of Paris II (2010), and Fellow of the Medieval Academy of America (2012). He has served as president of the American Society for Legal History and holds multiple honorary memberships in scholarly societies.

Teaching: Courses include Roman Law, Continental Legal History, and English Legal History. He has taught Property Law for over 50 years at Harvard.