Books by R. H. Helmholz

Illuminates the moral, social, political, and religious values in canon law as it developed through the seventeenth century and reveals the attitudes and formal techniques of the authors, practitioners, and interpreters of canon law. The author also discusses the Corpus iuris canonici, texts which form the foundation of canon law.

This is a history of the privilege in law against self-incrimination, demonstrating that what is sometimes considered an unchanging tenet of the legal system has actually encompassed many different legal consequences. The book seeks to uncover what the privilege meant in practice.

Natural-law theory grounds human laws in universal truths of God's creation. The task of the judicial system was to build an edifice of positive law on natural law's foundations. R. H. Helmholz shows how lawyers and judges made and interpreted natural law arguments in the West, and concludes that historically it has advanced the cause of justice.