Upon completion of the course students are able to

• identify and describe the main features of the Israeli legal system 
in its political, social, and religious context.

• comprehend and explain the role of law as a social regulator, 
with its ethical, communal, and business implications.

• understand the core concepts of privacy in the Digital world and reflect 
on their particular situation in this respect.

• reflect on justice-restorative function of law in its historical and contemporary context, 
and critically appraise the dilemmas therefrom arising;

• understand basic concepts of law and economics approach and exemplify them;

• appreciate variability of solutions of legal problems in a foreign legal system 
in comparison to the system adopted in his/her own country.

• explain and critically discuss selected legal institutes in comparative perspective;

• develop their proficiency in English for law.

• Israeli Law is an intricate mosaic of various legal traditions, historical sources and jurisprudential influences. This module aims to shed light on its unique, multi-faceted hybrid nature, by way of exploring the roots, evolution and current structure of the Israeli legal system.

• While Israel does not have a full fledged “formal” constitution, it has Basic Laws that have been construed by the Supreme Court as authorizing Judicial Review. The course will describe the history and application of the above, as well the appointment of Justices and work of the Supreme Court, seen, in particular from the teacher’s perspective as the High Court of Justice.

Combined Reading for Modules 1–2

1. Marcia Gelpe, The Israeli Legal System 47-87 (2013).

2. Gary Jeffrey Jacobsohn & Yaniv Roznai, Constitutional Revolution 187-211 (2020).

3. The Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, available at:

https://m.knesset.gov.il/en/about/pages/declaration.aspx

4. Basic-Law: The Judiciary, available at:

https://m.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawTheJudiciary.pdf

5. Basic-Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, available at:

https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/Documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawLiberty.pdf

6. Basic-Law: Freedom of Occupation, available at:

https://m.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/Documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawOccupation.pdf

7. Basic-Law: Israel – The Nation State of the Jewish People, available at:

https://main.knesset.gov.il/EN/activity/Documents/BasicLawsPDF/BasicLawNationState.pdf

Supreme Court Decisions – required reading consists of abstracts only:

8. CA 6821/93 United Mizrahi Bank v. Migdal Cooperative Village, available at:

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/united-mizrahi-bank-v-migdal-cooperative-village

9. HCJ 466/07 Gal-On v. Attorney General, available at:

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/gal-v-attorney-general-summary

10. HCJ 4374/15 Movement for Quality Government v. Prime Minister, available at:

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/movement-quality-government-v-prime-minister

11. HCJ 2144/20 Movement for Quality Government in Israel v. Speaker of the Knesset, available at:

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/movement-quality-government-israel-v-speaker-knesset

12. HCJ 7846/19 Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel v. State Attorney’s Office – Cyber Department, available at:

https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/adalah-legal-center-arab-minority-rights-israel-v-state-attorney%E2%80%99s-office-%E2%80%93-cyber

Optional reading:

• Daphne Barak-Erez, The National Security Constitution and the Israeli Condition, in ISRAELI CONSTITUTIONAL LAW IN THE MAKING 429 (Gideon Sapir et al. eds., 2013).

• Assaf Likhovski, Peripheral Vision: Polish-Jewish Lawyers and Early Israeli Law, 36 LAW & HIST. REV. 235 (2018).

• The Mandate for Palestine, available at:
  https://avalon.law.yale.edu/20th_century/palmanda.asp

1.   A general framework of law and technology

• In this lecture, we will discuss the theoretical issues, main views on the topic, and provide some examples from the regulation of various challenges, such as governmental regulation of terror supporting or prostitution content. There is an Israeli law on the matter, as well as an informal practice of removing contents via the Cyber Unit’s direct approach to digital platforms. The Supreme Court approved the latter practice.

  • • John Perry Barlow, A Declaration of the Independence of Cyberspace (1996) – or watch the video: https://vimeo.com/111576518

    • Lawrence Lessig, Free Culture: How Big Media Uses Technology and the Law to Lock Down Culture and Control Creativity (2004) – in this book, Lessig summarizes his argument from his book Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace. Read pages 121-130

    • Powers to Prevent the Commission of Offenses Using a Website Act, 2017 (Isr.)

    • HCJ 7846/19 Adalah Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel v. State Attorney’s Office – Cyber Department (April 12, 2021), available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/adalah-legal-center-arab-minority-rights-israel-v-state-attorney%E2%80%99s-office-%E2%80%93-cyber paragraphs: 1-17, 29-30, 69-75

2.   Privacy in Crisis

• This lecture will begin with an overview of present privacy challenges – from government, the private sector, including social media and online data giants; will present in broad brush various solutions, including the GDPR. Obviously, one cannot go into too much detail in a limited time. A leading case study will be the use of the Israeli Security Agency’s secret technological tool for the purpose of contact tracing during Covid.

  • • Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, Articles 7, 8

    • HCJ 2109/20 Ben-Meir v. Prime Minister (March 19, 2020), available at https://versa.cardozo.yu.edu/opinions/ben-meir-v-prime-minister-0, paragraphs 0-8, 14-15, 24, 26, 33-34, 35-42, 46-47

3.   Privacy by Design

• This lecture will combine the previous two, with searching for a technological solution for the privacy challenges, within a legal framework. Examples will be discussed, such as body scanners in airports, and the publication of judicial opinions online, with examples from Israel.

  • • Ann Cavoukian, Privacy by Design

    • GDPR, Art. 25

    • HaMagen App

    • (non-compulsory reading) Michael Birnhack, Eran Toch & Irit Hadar, Privacy Mindset, Technological Mindset, 55 Jurimetrics: Journal of Law, Science & Technology 55-114 (2014)

• This module examines three issues: (1) the criminalisation of prostitution (in particular, the new Israeli offence criminalising clients for purchasing sex); (2) deceptive sex (in particular, which characteristics of the perpetrator, their relations with the victim, or of the sexual act itself vitiate consent); and (3) the use of the complainant’s sexual history to prove consent.

•  Israeli society is often spatially organized according to nationality, religion, ethnicity, class and other divisions. The law impacts and shapes this spatial organization, which is often segregated and unequal. This module will analyze the various legal domains – local government law, constitutional law, administrative law – that take part in the construction of Israeli space and society, and will normatively assess them.

• This module is aimed at exploring central theoretical and practical aspects of the civil process in common law systems compared to civil law systems. Its object is for students to get acquainted with adversarial procedure through critical consideration of the cutting-edge literature and compare it with the inquisitorial procedure. We will discuss such diverse issues as the values and purposes of common law procedure; its complicated relationship with substantive law; and the basic dilemmas faced by decision makers when designing a system of procedure.

• Kenneth E, Schott, Two Model of the Civil Process, 27 STAN. L. REV. 937, 937-945 (1975)
• David Luban, Settlement and the Erosion of the Public Realm, 83 GEO. L. J. 2619, 2619-2626 (1995)
• Richard A. Posner, An Economic Approach to Legal Procedure and Judicial Administration, 399, 399-410 (1973)
• Marc Galanter, Why the "Haves" Come out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change, 95, 96-114 (1974)
• John H. Langbein, The German Advantage in Civil Procedure, 52 U. Chicago L. Rev. 823, 830-841 (1985)
• Amalia Kessler, Our Inquisitorial Tradition: Equity Procedure, Due Process and the Search for an Alternative to the Adversarial, 90 Cornell L. Rev. 1181, 1182-1184, 1187-1193, 1251-1259 (2005) 

NB: the schedule may be updated (days will remain as indicated, hours may still be adjusted).

Monday, 29 August

Room 209, Collegium Iuridicum I (1st floor, middle staircase)

9.00 am–10.30 am; Shani Schnitzer, Introduction to Israeli Law I

10.45 am–12.15 pm; Shani Schnitzer, Introduction to Israeli Law II

12.30 pm–15.00 pm: Justice E. Rubinstein, Israeli Constitutionalism (I + II, with a break).

Tuesday, 30 August

9.00 am–11.30 am: Justice E. Rubinstein, Israeli Constitutionalism II & III (with a break)

11.45 pm–1.15 pm: Prof. Michael Birnhack, IT Law and Law of New Technologies I

1.30 pm – 3.00 pm: Prof. Michael Birnhack, IT Law and Law of New Technologies II

Wednesday, 31 August

9.00 am–10.30am: Prof Michael Birnhackm IT Law and Law of New Technologies III

10.45 am–12.15 pm: Prof. Yishai Blank, Law, Space, and Society in Israel I

12.30 am–3.00 pm: Prof. Amit Pundik, Criminalisation of Sex in Israel I & II (with a break)

Thursday, 1 September

9.00 am–12.00 pm: Prof. Yishai Blank, Law, Space, and Society in Israel IΙ & III (with a break)

12.15 pm–2.45 pm: Prof. Amit Pundik, Criminalisation of Sex in Israel II & III (with a break)

Monday, 5 September

9.00 am–10.30 am: Prof. Issachar Rosen-Zvi, Comparative Civil Process I

10.45 am–12.15 pm: Prof. Issachar Rosen-Zvi, Comparative Civil Process II

12.30 pm–2 pm: Prof. Issachar Rosen-Zvi, Comparative Civil Process III

Wednesday, 7 September

10 am–11.10 am Exam.

• Evaluation: class preparation/work (on the basis of pre-submitted materials/problems)+ written exam