". . . a compelling historical account of natural rights. . . .That Tierney brings to his historical task a thorough acquaintance with major contemporary theories of moral and legal rights gives his work additional value for ethicists." - Religious Studies Review
". . . a tour de force of integration and learning. . . . It is a synthesis that will become the required starting point in all future efforts to write about the history of rights." - Studia canonica

The Bowmar Professor in Humanistic Studies Emeritus atCornell University. A world authority on Western historyand canon law, he has published a dozen books includingFoundations of the Conciliar Theory: The Contributionsof the Medieval Canonists from Gratian to the GreatSchism; Origins of Papal Infallibility, 1150-1350: AStudy on the Concepts of Infallibility, Sovereignty andTradition in the Middle Ages; Medieval Poor Law: ASketch of Canonical Theory and Its Application inEngland; and Religion, Law and the Growth ofConstitutional Thought, 1150-1650. "