Ryan Rowberry
Professor and Janice C. Griffith Chair in Law; Co-Director Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth- Education
J. D., Harvard Law School Cambridge, MA, USA
M.St., Oxford University Oxford, UK
M.Sc., Oxford University Oxford, UK
B.A.. Brigham Young University Provo, UT, USA (Rhodes Scholar)
- Specializations
Comparative Law
Environmental Law
Legal History
Property
- Biography
Ryan Rowberry, Professor and Janice C. Griffith Chair in Law, is the co-director for the Center for the Comparative Study of Metropolitan Growth at the Georgia State University College of Law. Rowberry teaches Property Law, Natural Resources Law, Environmental Law and Anglo-American Legal History. His research focuses on contemporary legal issues involving cultural and historic resources, and on the medieval common law judiciary.
Rowberry’s articles have appeared in numerous domestic and international law journals, with some articles being translated into Spanish, Turkish and Polish. He also is the co-author of two books: Historic Preservation Law in a Nutshell, a groundbreaking resource that provides the first in-depth summary of historic preservation law within its local, state, tribal, federal and international contexts; and Land Use Planning and Development Law, one of the leading land use treatises in the United States.
Rowberry was selected as a Fulbright scholar to Denmark (2018), where he studied legal frameworks for protecting coastal cultural heritage in the era of climate change. He was also tapped by the Organization of American States (a regional organization of 35 independent countries in the Americas) to assist 13 Caribbean nations with reforming their cultural heritage laws.
Rowberry graduated from Harvard Law School, where he was an Islamic Legal Studies Fellow, a Cravath International Fellow, and received the Irving Oberman Award in Legal History. Following graduation, he practiced environmental and natural resources law at HoganLovells in Washington, DC. Before joining the College of Law, Rowberry was a U.S. Supreme Court Fellow, during which he collaborated with foreign judges and academics on judicial independence and rule-of-law matters.
Prior to attending law school, Rowberry worked as a historian and an educator. He transcribed and collated all extant medieval manuscripts for three of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales. He also taught seventh grade at a charter school and lectured in English and History at Peking University in Beijing, China. He holds a B.A. in English from Brigham Young University and was selected as a Rhodes Scholar (1999). At Oxford University, he earned a M.Sc. in comparative education policy and a M.St. in medieval British history.
- Publications
Books
Ryan Rowberry, et al., Preserving the Silk Road: Cultural Heritage Legislation in 5 Central Asian Countries (2024)
The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Law and Policy: Risk, Recovery, and Redevelopment (Susan S. Kuo, John T. Marshall, & Ryan Rowberry eds., 2022).
Sara C. Bronin & Ryan M. Rowberry, Historic Preservation Law in a Nutshell (2nd ed. 2018).
Sara C. Bronin & Ryan Rowberry, Historic Preservation Law in a Nutshell (West Academic 2014).
Julian Conrad Juergensmeyer & Thomas E. Roberts, Land Use Planning and Development Regulation Law (3d ed., 2012) (updated annually; Patricia E. Salkin & Ryan Rowberry additional authors on annual updates).
Ryan Rowberry, Salena Chow, & West Delavera, Spoken English for International Communication (New Oriental School ed., 2004).
Ryan Rowberry, International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Intensive Training (New Oriental School ed., 2003).
Ryan Rowberry, The Anglo-Saxon Axe: An Introductory Study (BYU Press 1999).
Book Chapters
Ryan Rowberry, The Papal Constitution Execrabilis (1317) and Clerical Justices in the English Royal Courts, in The Learned and Lived Law: Essays in Honor of Charles Donahue 334 (Elizabeth Papp Kamali, Saskia Lettmaier, & Nikitas Hatzimihail, eds., 2024).
Ryan Rowberry, Reflections on Urban Cultural Heritage, Public Health, and Public Participation, in The Cambridge Handbook of Disaster Law and Policy: Risk, Recovery, and Redevelopment (Susan S. Kuo, John T. Marshall, & Ryan Rowberry eds., 2022).
Ryan Rowberry, Crafting Heritage Register Laws: Lessons from the Caribbean, in Experiencias Multiples en la Gestion y Salvaguarda del Patrimonio Arqueologico Maya 25 (Ivan Batun Apulche, et al., eds. 2022).
Ryan Rowberry, Avoiding Atlantis: Protecting Urban Cultural Heritage from Disaster, in How Cities Will Save The World: Urban Innovation in the Face of Population Flows, Climate Change and Economic Inequality (Ray Brescia and John Travis Marshall, eds. 2016).
Ryan Rowberry, From Criminal Law to Urban Law And Policy: A Tribute to Professor Feridun Yenisey, in Festschrift for Prof. Dr. Feridun Yenisey XL VIII (Nuhoglu, Altunc and Pirim eds. 2015) (with Julian Juergensmeyer)
Ryan Rowberry, Legal History Through Digital Sources, in Teaching Legal History: Comparative Perspectives 99 (Robert M. Jarvis ed. 2014).
Douglas P. Wheeler & Ryan M. Rowberry, Habitat Conservation Plans and the Endangered Species Act, in Endangered Species Act: Law, Policy, and Perspectives (2d ed., Donald C. Bauer & William Robert Irvin eds., 2010).
Ryan Rowberry, Law School Update: LCCHP Law School Survey Report on Cultural Heritage Curricula, in Yearbook of Cultural Property Law (Sherry Hutt & David Tarler eds., 2007).
Ryan Rowberry, Medieval Manuscript Transcription and Collation, in The Nun's Priest's Tale on CD-ROM (Paul Thomas ed., Scholarly Digital Editions, 2006).
Ryan Rowberry, Ode to Language, in America at the Millennium (1998).
Articles
John Travis Marshall, Ryan Max Rowberry, & Ann-Margaret Esnard, Core Capabilities and Capacities of Developer Nonprofits in Postdisaster Community Rebuilding, 18 Nat. Hazards Rev. 05016004 (2017).
Ryan Rowberry, Forest Eyre Justices in the Reign of Henry III (1216-1272), 25 Wm. & Mary Bill Rts J. 513 (2016).
Ryan Rowberry & Gordon Pirie, Laws Regarding Controversial Cultural Heritage in South Africa and the United States: Public Monuments and Street Names, 63 Studia Iuridica 263 (2016).
Ryan Rowberry, The Social Status, Education, and Benefices of Gilbert Rothbury, a Clerical Common Law Justice (1295-1321), 15 Monumenta Iuris Canonici 453 (2015).
John T. Marshall and Ryan Rowberry, Urban Wreckage and Resiliency: Articulating a Practical Framework for Preserving, Reconstructing, and Building Cities, 50 Idaho L. Rev. 49 (2014).
Ryan Rowberry, Anchoring Memory in the Face of Disaster: Technology and Istanbul's Cultural Heritage Preservation Regime, Bahçeşehir Üniversitesi Hukuk Fakültesi Dergisi, Nov.-Dec. 2013, at 195.
Ryan Rowberry, Legal History Through Digital Sources, 53 Am. J. Legal Hist. 421 (2013).
Ryan Rowberry, Drinking From the Same Cup: Federal Reserved Water Rights and National Parks in the Eastern United States, 29 Ga. St. U. L. Rev. 987 (2013).
Ryan Rowberry, Violence & Affray in Herefordshire During the Early Tudor Period (1485-1547), 54 Trans. Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club 51 (2006).
Ryan Rowberry, The Battle Over Maldon: Byrthnoth's Ofermode, Insight, Winter 1999, at 12.
Popular Press
Jennifer McClister, et al., U.S. Supreme Court Limits CERCLA Liability of Sellers of Chemicals, and Affirms that "Joint and Severable" Liability Should Not Be Imposed When Responsibility for Chemical Releases Can Be Reasonably Apportioned, Lexology, May 6, 2009.
Unpublished Papers
Other