He has published widely on the high medieval history of the papacy and of canon law.
He is a corresponding member of the Monumenta Germaniae Historica in Munich and of the Bavarian Academy of Sciences and Humanities.
He has received numerous awards, including two John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowships, in 1974 and 1987.
[3] In 2012, the Catholic University of America Press published a Festschrift in his honor, Canon Law, Religion, and Politics: "Liber Amicorum" Robert Somerville, edited by his former students Uta-Renate Blumenthal, Anders Winroth, and Peter Landau.
His son, Gregory Somerville, graduated in 2013 from Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in music.