Spreading Light Within the Darkness
October 7 will likely be remembered as a landmark in the history of the State of Israel, not only because of the scale of the horror, but because of what it revealed about human beings. My wife and I traveled a few days ago into the darkness of that day. Our first stop was the […]
Tort Law and the Deterrence Goal
Tort law does not aim for maximal deterrence. It aims for optimal deterrence. In other words, not maximum deterrence, but the right level of deterrence. So what is the “optimum point” between under-deterrence and over-deterrence? In one of the most important books ever written on tort law, The Cost of Accidents: A Legal and Economic […]
Sternberg v. Municipality of Bnei Brak
CA 73/86 Sternberg v. Municipality of Bnei Brak dealt with a resident of Bnei Brak who slipped on a sidewalk due to sewage flooding. The court held that the municipality was negligent, and that the burden shifts to the municipality to show that it was not. The municipality did not meet that burden. On one […]
Advanced Topics in Tort Law
This advanced course explores selected issues in tort law, with an emphasis on how legal theory can serve practice, and how real-world legal experience can enrich theory. Topics include: Tort law and public tortfeasors Distributive justice in tort law The duty of care in negligence Factual causation Informed consent and harm to autonomy Defamation law
A Conversation or a Debate
In my lectures and in various roles I hold, I am exposed to intense discussions on different topics. Let me be clear: we are allowed to have intense conversations about things we disagree on. I am not afraid of such conversations, even when I know they may be heated. Here is an important insight: conversations, […]
“Modeling a Life”: The Party That Does Not Exist
When you look at social media, it can seem that life is one big party and everyone is invited to it, because their life looks like that. But in reality, no one’s life looks like that. Just as mannequins model perfect bodies in shopping-mall display windows, polished pictures can seem to model perfect lives in […]
Tort Compensation in the United States and England: Goal or Means?
Tort Compensation in the United States and England: Goal or Means? Boaz Segal, Tort Compensation in the United States and England: Goal or Means? 87 American Journal of Trade and Policy 8 (2021).
Facts in an Age of Subjective Truth: An External, Shared Reality in a Universe of Bubble-Like, Individual Realities
My principled position is that we must accept that there are facts and truths in our world, and understand that there is an external, shared reality on which we can agree. The fact that access to information has become easier and faster does not, of course, mean that the information we are exposed to is […]
Love on Trial
Who has not dealt with love? Poets and writers, painters and sculptors, philosophers and religious figures, and even psychologists and neurologists. The time has come for legal professionals to do so as well. Can law regulate our inner emotions? Can love be confined within rules, norms, and conventions? This lecture examines the complex relationship between […]
State and Public Authority Liability in Tort Law
The IDF carries out dust-screening operations that raise clouds of dust for those passing near the border. The owner of an apple orchard sues the State, arguing that these dust clouds reduce the orchard’s yield; following a circumcision, a baby sustains a severe injury to his genital organ, and the State is also sued, alongside […]
