Elizabeth Papp Kamali

Elizabeth Papp Kamali is a Professor of Law at Harvard Law School, where she teaches Criminal Law, English Legal History, and courses on the Mind and Criminal Responsibility in the Anglo-American Tradition. She holds a PhD in History from the University of Michigan, a J.D. from Harvard Law School, and an A.B. from Harvard College.

• Education: A.B., Harvard College (1997); J.D., Harvard Law School (2007); Ph.D., University of Michigan (2015)
• Career: Prior to academia, worked at Orion Consultants and volunteered as a CASA advocate

Kamali's research centers on the medieval English common law, focusing on the history of criminal law, felony adjudication, and the role of intentionality in legal outcomes. She explores how canon law and Roman law influenced early common law, particularly in handling doubt, intoxication, and confessional rhetoric in trials.

Her recent publications (2015–2024) reveal trends in analyzing mens rea in medieval contexts, jury dynamics, and cultural intersections between legal and religious practices. Key subfields include felony procedural history, cross-jurisdictional comparisons, and historical methodologies applied to sparse legal records.

As a scholar, Kamali has contributed extensively to legal history through book chapters, peer-reviewed articles, and edited volumes, emphasizing the cognitive challenges faced by medieval juries and the philosophical underpinnings of criminal responsibility. Her work bridges historical legal analysis with contemporary debates on criminal intent and adjudicative fairness.