Religion Law Commons^™

Economic Analysis Of Jewish Law, Keith Sharfman

Faculty Publications

(Excerpt)

Like any legal system, Jewish law is amenable to economic analysis, both positive and normative. Economic analysis can help to explain how and why the various rules comprising Jewish law arose and persisted over time. It also can facilitate a direct assessment of Jewish law on the merits. In practice, however, it is a mainly positive economic analysis of Jewish law that scholars have emphasized, while normative analysis has, for the most part, been underemphasized.

Take, for example, the application of law and economics to biblical exegesis. The legal-economic work in this field has been largely descriptive rather than …

Religious Courts In Secular Jurisdictions: How Jewish And Islamic Courts Adapt To Societal And Legal Norms, Rabea Benhalim

Publications

At first glance, religious courts, especially Sharia courts, seem incompatible with secular, democratic societies. Nevertheless, Jewish and Islamic courts operate in countries like the United States, England, and Israel. Scholarship on these religious courts has primarily focused on whether such religious legal pluralism promotes the value of religious freedom, and if so, whether these secular legal systems should accommodate the continued existence of these courts. This article shifts the inquiry to determine whether religious courts in these environments accommodate litigants’ popular opinions and the secular, procedural, and substantive justice norms of the country in which they are located. This article …

Introduction, Legal Scholarship In Jewish Law, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In recent years, Jewish law has gained significant prominence in American legal scholarship, producing a substantial body of literature exploring the Jewish legal system, both on its own terms and in comparative perspective. In particular, the past few decades have seen a marked increase in the number of articles published in American law reviews addressing substantive, procedural, and conceptual aspects of Jewish law, often in the context of broader considerations of important, unsettled, and controversial issues in American legal thought.

In the past, a number of scholars have compiled bibliographies collecting and, at times, briefly annotating, lists of selected works …

Israel’S Rosit The Riveter: Between Secular Law And Jewish Law, Pnina Lahav

Faculty Scholarship

In the world of Judaism, the “end of men” is not in sight. Surely, tectonic plates are sliding and shifting, and a great deal of change is unfolding, but men are fighting hard to keep patriarchy alive. Deep inside, the Orthodox patriarchal man may be motivated by the sheer impulse to maintain his power, but outwardly he projects a profound commitment to his religious law, the law of God. He believes that his fight is a noble one ordained by divine will and that God is on his side. The problem is global; it appears in every Jewish community around …

Jewish Law Courts In America: Lessons Offered To Sharia Courts By The Beth Din Of America Precedent, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

Although the BDA is now a fifty-year-old organization, its true metamorphosis as an arbitration panel began only in 1996 when it gained autonomy from the Rabbinical Council of America. In the fifteen years since, an independent board of directors has worked with the BDA’s rabbinic leaders to craft an arbitration process that secular courts would feel comfortable upholding. While the BDA’s transformation required some level of compromise within Jewish law itself, the adaptations necessary for judicial acceptance proved to be procedural. Broadly, this meant conforming to the tenets of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). More specifically, the BDA’s viability came …

The Unanimous Verdict According To The Talmud: Ancient Law Providing Insight Into Modern Legal Theory, Ephraim Glatt

Pace International Law Review Online Companion

Part I of this paper will provide background information regarding the current academic discussion surrounding the unanimous verdict. Part II will discuss the startling Talmudic passage on the unanimous verdict. It will additionally focus on one explanation that radically reinterprets this passage. Part IIIA will introduce two schools of thought on the rationale behind the anti-unanimity rule. Part IIIB will highlight two areas of modern legal theory affected by such rationales.

Jewish Law From Out Of The Depths: Tragic Choices In The Holocaust, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.

Kidneys, Cash, And Kashrut: A Legal, Economic, And Religious Analysis Of Selling Kidneys, Robert E. Steinbuch

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Judaism Without Ordinary Law: Toward A Broader View Of Sanctification, Jonathan R. Cohen

UF Law Faculty Publications

With the functional constriction of Jewish law to the ritual, it is easy to relegate Torah and, with it, our sense of sanctification, to the ritual. Such is a great loss. Recognizing sanctification as not only separation but also elevation may help us see the possibility of pursuing sanctification throughout our lives. In other words, the legal constriction produced by history should not become a spiritual one as well.

Looking Beyond The Mercy/Justice Dichotomy: Reflections On The Complementary Roles Of Mercy And Justice In Jewish Law And Tradition, Samuel J. Levine

Scholarly Works

In one of his earliest encyclicals, Dives in Misericordia, Pope John Paul II explored the concepts of mercy and kindness, with a focus on notions of divine love and compassion. Building upon these observations, and drawing extensively on the work of Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik and other scholars of Jewish law and philosophy, Levine considers the complementary roles of justice and mercy in Jewish tradition. Toward that end, Levine places these concepts in a broader perspective, viewing mercy as representative of attributes such as kindness, compassion, love, and peacefulness, while understanding justice in terms of more exacting principles, such as strict …

A Jewish Law View Of World Law, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

This paper will explore two basic Jewish law questions which reflect on the technical issues related to Professor Berman's world law proposal. The first question asks how Jewish law views public international law and whether public international law can be incorporated into the corpus of Jewish law. The second question asks how Jewish law generally incorporates domestic (municipal) law into Jewish law and if this classical paradigm of integration assists in formulating a Jewish law view of world law. To the best of my knowledge, the first matter is a question of nearly first impression in the Jewish law literature.

Book Review, Stephen Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This a review of Jewish Law (Mishpat Ivri): Cases and Materials by Menachem Elon, Bernard Auerbach, Daniel D. Chazin and Melvin J. Sykes. The reviewer concludes that this book is not only the first of its kind, it is also an outstanding contribution to law teaching that will be of substantial assistance to the growing number of professors teaching Jewish law in American law schools. The extensive presentation of Talmudic and other Jewish law sources, combined with the inclusion of Israeli court decisions, make this book an excellent research tool for both student and professor. Its use of authority and …

Book Review, Dena S. Davis

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This is a review of Women and Jewish Law: The Essential Texts, Their History, and Their Relevance for Today by Rachel Biale (1995). It is a minor miracle. It is readable and free of unnecessary jargon, and accessible to the educated reader who has only some introduction to the nature of Jewish law (Halakhah). At the same time, it is serious and scholarly and would work very well as a text for a graduate seminar on Jewish law, women and law, or religion and law. The author celebrates the increasing power and visibility of women in all denominations of Judaism, …

Book Review, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This is a review of The Essence of Talmudic Law and Thought by Samuel N. Hoenig. The reviewer concludes that though this text is sometimes overly concise, it provides an excellent introduction to the essence of Talmudic thought. That Dr. Hoenig may overstate the importance of the Talmud as a factor in the ability of the Jewish people and Judaism to survive (ch. 11) does not detract from his book's contribution as a text that presents a comprehensive, understandable and readable introduction to one of the most complex and long-living sources of law ever created. When the person seeking to …

Yale Rosenberg: The Scholar And The Teacher Of Jewish Law, Sherman L. Cohn

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

In the early 1980s, when he was a young professor at the University of Houston Law Center, the author had the occasion to meet Yale Rosenberg. It was clear from their discussion that Professor Rosenberg had a strong interest in Jewish law as well as a strong knowledge base. They discussed teaching such a course at the University of Houston Law Center. Professor Rosenberg was doubtful about teaching a course in Jewish law at a secular law school, particularly one in Texas. But that conversation began a series of conversations where Yale explored in some depth the course that we …

Cloning: A Jewish Law Perspective With A Comparative Study Of Other Abrahamic Traditions, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

This Article does not provide answers to the religious, ethical, and moral issues posed by advanced reproductive techniques in human cloning. Rather, the preceding analysis and discussion seeks to make a contribution, however modest, to the continuation of the societal discussion that will ultimately yield the answers. This Article presents the common concerns of the religious traditions of Judaism, Islam, and Christianity with their mutual emphasis on preserving the dignity of all beings. This and other common values must form the foundation upon which all questions related to the cloning debate must be predicated.

Civil Enforceability Of Religious Prenuptual Agreements, Michelle Greenberg-Kobrin

Articles

In the years since Perri Victor's divorce has been finalized, she has tried to move on with her life. She is raising a young daughter from that marriage and finishing up law school. Perri and Warren Victor were married in an Orthodox Jewish ceremony in Florida in 1976. They received a civil divorce in 1990. However, as an Observant Jew, Perri cannot remarry until Warren gives her a Jewish religious divorce known as a get. Since late 1987, she has been pleading with Warren to give her a get. When Warren asked her to give up a portion of her …

Cloning People: A Jewish Law Analysis Of The Issues, Michael J. Broyde

Faculty Articles

This Article is an attempt to create a preliminary and tentative analysis of the technology of cloning from a Jewish law perspective. Like all preliminary analyses, it is designed not to advance a rule that represents itself as definitive normative Jewish law, but rather an attempt to outline some of the issues in the hope that others will focus on the problems and analysis found in this Article and will sharpen or correct that analysis. Such is the way that Jewish law seeks truth.

In the case of cloning-as with all advances in reproductive technology- the Jewish tradition is betwixt …

Ancient Answers To Modern Questions: Death, Dying And Organ Transplants - A Jewish Law Perspective, Stephen J. Werber

Law Faculty Articles and Essays

Core values of the Jewish heritage are life and family, not death. An interpretation of Halachah which permits a broad definition of passive euthanasia without lapsing into acceptance of active euthanasia or its more evil cousin, assisted suicide, is consistent with these values. Also consistent with these values and the Jewish tradition is a modern definition of death which recognizes advances in medical technology that were beyond the knowledge or imagination of those who created the vast body of Rabbinic law. This approach will not only ease the suffering of families, it will allow organ transplants to save the lives …

The Return Of Lost Property According To Jewish & Common Law: A Comparison, Michael J. Broyde, Michael Hecht

Faculty Articles

This article compares the legal rules and jurisprudence of the American common law and Jewish law in the area of finding and returning lost or abandoned property, illustrating the interplay between the purely legal and ethical components of the respective legal systems. Surprisingly enough, the differences between the two systems are not usually significant; they follow the same basic legal principles, and typically lead to the same results. There are, however, two major exceptions: Jewish law imposes a duty to rescue the lost property of one's neighbor, while the common law does not require that one initiate the process by …