For a pdf version of this vita click here.

Charles Donahue Picture

Charles Donahue, Jr. – Curriculum Vitae
(Last updated 6/25/2025)
Hauser 512
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138
tel: (617) 495–2944
fax: (617) 496–4913
email: smuffuletto@law.harvard.edu
(My personal email is “unlisted.” This is the email address of my assistant. Messages sent to this address will be forwarded to me.)

 

PERSONAL Born October 4, 1941, in New York, New York. American citizen. Married to the former Sheila Finn (August 22, 1964), with one daughter, Sarah (now Greiner), born August 14, 1965, and two grandsons, Seamus Sebastian Greiner, born November 16, 2006, and Eamon Augustine Greiner, born February 24, 2010.
 
EMPLOYMENT    
September, 1978 to present HARVARD LAW SCHOOL CAMBRIDGE, MA
  Paul A. Freund Professor of Law, since June 1995
   Visiting Professor of Law, Boston College School of Law,
   Newton, MA
        August to December, 2005
   Visiting Professor of Law, Cornell University School of Law,
   Ithaca, NY
        August to December, 1996
Professor of Law, January, 1980 to June 1995
   Visiting Professor of Law, Boston College School of Law,
   Newton, MA
        January to June, 1987
Visiting Professor of Law, September, 1978 to June 1979
 
June, 1968 to December, 1979 UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SCHOOL OF LAW ANN ARBOR, MI
  Professor, June, 1973 to December, 1979
   Visiting Professor of Law, Harvard University School of Law,
   Cambridge, MA
        September, 1978 to June, 1979 (see above)
   Visiting Professor of Law, University of California School of
   Law (Boalt Hall), Berkeley, CA
        August to December, 1976
   Visiting Professor of Law, Columbia University School of
   Law, New York, NY
        January to June, 1976
   Visiting Professor of Law, Vrije Universiteit te Brussel,
   Brussels, BELGIUM
        January to June, 1975
Associate Professor (with tenure), June, 1971 to June, 1973
   Academic Visitor, Law Department, London School of
   Economics and Political Science, London, UK
        September, 1972 to June, 1973
Assistant Professor, June, 1968 to May, 1971
 
September, 1967 to June, 1968 THE PRESIDENT'S COMMISSION ON POSTAL ORGANIZATION WASHINGTON, DC
  Assistant General Counsel  
July, 1965 to August, 1967 UNITED STATES AIR FORCE WASHINGTON, DC
  Attorney-Advisor, Office of the General Counsel, Office of the Secretary  
Summer, 1964 PAUL, WEISS, RIFKIND, WHARTON & GARRISON NEW YORK, NY
  Summer Associate  
EDUCATION    
September, 1962 to June, 1965 YALE LAW SCHOOL NEW HAVEN, CT
  Ll.B. 1965, Order of the Coif. Articles and Book Review Editor of the Yale Law Journal. Special Divisional Program in Legal History directed by W. H. Dunham and Stephan Kuttner.  
September, 1959 to June, 1962 HARVARD COLLEGE CAMBRIDGE, MA
  A.B. 1962, magna cum laude, in Classics and English. Bachelor’s essay entitled “Romeo’s Sweet New Style.”  
September, 1955 to June, 1959 PORTSMOUTH PRIORY SCHOOL (now Portsmouth Abbey School) PORTSMOUTH, RI
  High School diploma, cum laude, first in class, 1959.  
AWARDS

Fellow, Royal Historical Society (UK), 1986
Docteur honoris causa, University of Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), 2011
Fellow, Medieval Academy of America, 2012
Honorary Member, Harvard Phi Beta Kappa Chapter, 2012
Fellow, American Society for Legal History, 2014
Fellow, Society of Antiquaries (U.K.) 2015

COURSES TAUGHT (Those courses that have hyperlinks on them will take you to the website of the course in the most recent version that I gave it.)
  Property (Law)
  Fall 1968, Winter 1969, Fall 1969 & Winter 1970, Fall 1970 & Winter 1971, Fall 1971 & Winter 1972, Fall 1973 & Winter 1974, Summer & Fall 1975, Winter 1976, Fall 1976, Fall 1977 & Winter 1978, Spring 1979, Fall 1979, Spring 1981, Spring 1982, Fall 1985 & Spring 1986, Fall 1987 & Spring 1988, Fall 1992, Fall 1995, Fall 1998, Fall 2000, Fall 2003, Fall 2004, Fall 2006, Fall 2007, Fall 2008, Fall 2009, Spring 2011, Fall 2011, Fall 2012, Fall 2014, Fall 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2017, Spring 2019, Fall 2019.
  Advanced Property (Family Property Transactions: Wills and Trusts [with some Real Estate])
  Fall 1983, Fall 1984, Fall 1985, Spring 1987, Fall 1988, Fall 1989, Fall 1990, Fall 1991, Fall 1993, Fall 1994.
  Wills and Trusts
  Fall 1999, Spring 2002.
  Regulated Industries
  Summer 1968, Summer 1969, Summer 1972.
  Federal Anti-trust
  Fall 1969, Fall 1970, Fall, 1973, Winter 1975, Fall 1978, Spring 1980, Winter 1981.
  Roman Law (survey) (Law)
  Winter 1971, Winter 1974, Winter 1976, Winter 1977, Spring 1980, Spring 1981, Spring 1984, Spring 1986, Spring 1988, Fall 1991, Fall 1994, Fall 1997, Fall 1999, Fall 2002, Fall 2004, Fall 2007 (with A. Lanni), Fall 2020, Fall 2021, Fall 2023.
  Roman Law (reading group)
  Fall 2010, Fall 2011, Fall 2015, Fall 2017, Fall 2019.
  Continental Legal History (survey) (Law) (FAS = Medieval Studies 119)
  Fall 1990, Fall 1993, Spring 1995, Spring 1998, Spring 2000, Spring 2003, Spring 2005, Spring 2008, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  Continental Legal History (seminar) ( Law) (FAS = History 2080 [formerly History 2126]
  Fall 1984 & Spring 1985, Fall 1988 & Spring 1989, Spring 1998, Spring 2000, Spring 2003, Spring 2005, Spring 2008, Spring 2011, Spring 2013, Spring 2016, Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025.
  European Legal History (reading group)
  Fall 2009.
  English Constitutional History to 1485
  Fall 1977, Fall 1979, Spring 1991.
  English Legal History (survey) (Law) (FAS = Medieval Studies 117)
  Fall 1983, Fall 1984, Winter 1986, Fall 1987, Fall 1988, Fall 1989, Spring 1991, Spring 1992, Spring 1994, Spring 1996, Fall 1996, Spring 1999, Spring 2002, Spring 2004, Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Fall 2018, Fall 2021, Fall 2022, Fall 2023.
  English Legal History (seminar) (Law) (FAS = History 2080 [formerly History 2126])
  Fall 1977, Fall 1979, Spring 1985, Spring 1999, Spring 2002, Spring 2004, Spring 2007, Spring 2009, Spring 2012, Spring 2015, Spring 2017, Fall 2018, Spring 2021, Spring 2026.
  English Legal History (reading group)
  Fall 2008, Fall 2012.
  Law, History & Society (variously a course or a seminar; some of those in the Michigan years were done with T. Green and T. Tentler)
  Winter 1969, Winter 1970, Fall 1971, Fall 1974, Winter 1977, Fall 1978, Fall 1980, Spring 1984, Fall 1990 & Spring 1991, Fall 1991 & Spring 1992, Fall 1994 & Spring 1995.
  Legal Philosophy (with D. Regan)
  Winter 1972.
  Marital Property (seminar)
  Fall 1975, Winter 1978.
  Canon Law (seminar)
  Spring 1987.
  Law, Morals and Theology (seminar)
  Fall, 1996, Fall 1997.
  History of Marriage Law (seminar)
  Fall, 2005.
  History of Marriage Law (reading group)
  Fall 2014.
  Pierson v. Post (seminar)
  Spring 2021.
  In addition, I regularly gave reading courses for graduate students in both the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Sciences and in the Law School on various aspects of Roman law and medieval and early modern English and Continental legal and constitutional history. I also served on doctoral dissertation committees in the same fields in both faculties.
MEMBERSHIPS New York, Michigan (inactive) and United States Supreme Court bars and the
    bars of various lower federal courts
American Law Institute (life member)
American Society for Legal History (director 1977–79; vice-president 1982–85,
    president-elect 2004–5, president 2006–8, immediate past president 2008–9,
    member Finance Committee 2009– )
Selden Society (UK) (vice-president 1984–87, councillor 1987– , honorary
   treasurer for the U.S.A. 1987– 2014, honorary life member 2015– )
Medieval Academy of America (life member; fellow 2012– )
Ames Foundation (director and trustee 1980– , literary director 1989–2015, vice-
   president, 1991– , treasurer 2012–14, 2015– )
Royal Historical Society (UK) (fellow 1986– )
Iuris Canonici Medii Aevi Consortio (CH) (secretary 2000–8)
Society of Antiquaries (UK) (fellow, 2015– )
LANGUAGES Classical and Medieval Latin (reading), Classical and Koine Greek (some reading), Biblical Hebrew (some reading), French (reading and speaking), German (reading and some speaking), Italian (reading and some speaking), Old English (some reading), Dutch (smattering).
BIBLIOGRAPHY For a complete listing click here.