Rules and Reasons in the Jurisprudence of The Israeli Supreme Court and in Modern Jewish Law (Halakhah)

The jurisprudence of the Israeli Supreme Court (ISC) has undergone dramatic changes during the course of its existence. From its inception in 1948 until the late 1970s, the ISC subscribed to what scholars describe as formalistic, rule-oriented modes of legal reasoning. Yet from the early 1980s, under the aegis of Justice Aharon Barak, the ISC shifted to legal reasoning based not on applying rules but rather on weighing reasons and justifications. One scholar has referred to this shift as "the decline of formalism and the rise of values in Israeli law." Jewish law, on the other hand, has undergone the opposite process in the modern era, with its legal (halakhic) reasoning grounded in formalism, conceptualism, and rulism. Professor Yair Lorberbaum, a scholar of Jewish law and thought, will describe these two opposite processes, depict their background, and analyze their causes.

This event is free and open to the public, but an RSVP is requested.  To register, please email iscp@yu.edu.