David Ross Howarth (born 10 November 1958) is a British academic and politician who was the Liberal Democrat Member of Parliament for Cambridge from 2005–10. He is currently an Electoral Commissioner, and Reader in Private Law. From October 2015 he will be Professor of Law and Public Policy at the University of Cambridge.He is the author of Textbook on Tort, Law as Engineering: Thinking about What Lawyers Do and articles in academic journals and chapters in academic books.