The Faculties of Law of Tel Aviv University and of Haifa University and Yad Izhak Ben-Zvi present the First International Conference on Israeli Legal History, Honoring the Jubilee Year.

The conference will be held on the campuses of Tel Aviv and Haifa Universities on May 19-21, 1997.

The Steering Committee:

Prof. Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel
Dean Prof. Baruch Bracha, Haifa University, Faculty of Law
Dean Prof. Eliezer Lederman, Tel Aviv University, The Buchmann Faculty of Law
Dr. Zvi Tzameret, Director, Yad Ben Zvi, Jerusalem

Prof. Pnina Lahav, Boston University, Law School
Vice-Dean Prof. Menachem Mautner, Tel Aviv University, The Buchmann Faculty of Law
Dean Prof. Yoram Shachar, Radzyner Law School,The Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlia
Prof. Morton Horowitz, Harvard University, Law School
Prof. Eben Moglen, Columbia University, Law School

The Organizing Committee:

Prof. Pnina Lahav, Boston University, Law School
Dr. Ron Harris, Tel Aviv University, The Buchmann Faculty of Law
Dr. Alexandre (Sandy) Kedar, Haifa University, Faculty of Law

Co-ordinator:

Mr. Harel Ben-Ari, Tel Aviv University, The Buchmann Faculty of Law


Conference Sessions


Monday, May 19th, 1997
Tel Aviv University, Trubowicz Bldg. (Faculty of Law);
The Malka Brander Hall of Justice

19:00-20:30 Opening Session

Greetings: Eliezer Lederman, Dean, Tel-Aviv University
The Buchmann Faculty of Law
Baruch Bracha, Dean, Haifa University, Faculty of Law
David Rosenthal, Head of the Institute for Research of Eretz Israel, Yad Yzhak Ben Zvi, Jerusalem
Introductory Lecture:
Elyakim Rubinstein, Attorney General
Keynote Speaker:
Aharon Barak, President of the Supreme Court of Israel
Opening Address:
Pnina Lahav, Organizing Committee, Boston University Law School


Tuesday, May 20th, 1997
Tel Aviv University, Trubowicz Bldg. (Faculty of Law);
Rm 303

09:00-11:00 Contemporary Debates in Israeli Historiography and Sociology

Chair: Menachem Mautner, Law, Tel-Aviv
Panelists: Uri Ram, Behavioral Sciences, Ben-Gurion University
Post-Nationalist Histories: The Case of Israel
Yaacov Shavit, History of the Jewish People and History of
Eretz Israel, Tel-Aviv
Zionist Colonialism: Facts and Fiction
Daniel Gutwein, History of the Jewish People, Haifa
Revisionist Historiography as Privatization of the Isreali Collective Memory
Dan Diner, History, Tel-Aviv and Essen
In Between the Concrete and the Abstract: State, Land and Law

11:00-11:15 Coffee Break

11:15-12:30 Overview: Israeli Legal History, Past and Present

Short Presentations of the Literature by Participating Israeli Legal Historians

12:30-14:00 Lunch break

14:00-16:00 Methodological Round Table: Legal Histories in the 1990s: Between Social
History, Intellectual History and Postmodernism

Chair: Morton J. Horwitz, Law, Harvard
Panelists: Lawrence Friedman, Law, Stanford
Ideology and Method in Legal History
Morton J. Horwitz, Law, Harvard
David Sugarman, Law, Lancaster
Keeping the Memory Machine in Good Repair: Reflections on the Historical Revolution in Legal and Political Thought

16:00-16:30 Coffee Break

16:30-18:30 Thematic Session: Mandatory Palestine: Nationalism, Colonialism and Law

Chair: Yoram Shachar, Law, Interdisciplinary Center, Herzlia
Panelists: Yoram Shachar, Law, I.D.C.
The Dialectics of Zionism and Democracy in Legal Palestine
Eben Moglen, Law, Columbia
Pidgin and Creole: The Language of Judging in Mandatory Palestine
Ronen Shamir, Sociology and Anthropology, Tel-Aviv
Law and Nationalism in 1920s Palestine: Mapping the Terrain
Assaf Likhovski, Law, Tel-Aviv
Colonialism, Nationalism and Legal Education in Mandatory Palestine









Wednesday, May 21st, 1997
Haifa University, Tower Bldg. Observation Gallery


09:30 coffee

09:45-11:45 Thematic Session: Roots of Israeli Welfare State: Socialism, Etatism, Liberalism

Chair: Ruth Ben-Israel, Law, Tel-Aviv
Panelists: David De-Vries, Labor Studies, Tel-Aviv
The National Construction of A Workers' Moral Community: Labors' Autonomous Courts in Palestine
Ron Harris, Law, Tel-Aviv
Class, Nation, State: Whose Goals Was the Early Social Legislation Tailored to Match?
Commentators: Joshua Getzler, Law, Oxford
Guy Mundlak,Law, Haifa
12:00-13:00 Lunch break

13:00-15:00 Thematic Session: Land, Nationalism, and Settlement

Chair: Yosi Ben-Artzi, Land of Israel Studies, Haifa
Panelists: William Fisher III, Law, Harvard
Property and Power in American Legal History
Mazen Kupti, Attorney
The Legal Means of Transfer of Land Ownership from Arabs to Jews (1948-1960)
Alexandre (Sandy) Kedar, Law, Haifa
Re-Ordering Space: The Jewish State and the Arab Possessor
(1958-1970)
Plia Albek, Attorney
The Legal Structure of Land-Use as Derived From the Needs of the New Born State of Israel

15:00-15:15 Coffee Break






15:15-17:15 Thematic Session: Intellectual Origins of Israeli Constitutional Law

Chair: Joseph Edrei, Law, Haifa
Panelists: David Kretzmer, Law, Hebrew University
The Supreme Court and Occupation: An Unfinished History
Pnina Lahav, Law, Boston
The Supreme Court Confronts the Holocaust
Fania Oz-Salzberger, History, Haifa &
Eli Salzberger, Law, Haifa
Historical Sketch of Freedom of Speech in Israel:
A Near-Certainty Danger ?
Commentators: Harold Hyman, History, Rice
Leora Bilsky, Law, Tel-Aviv

17:15-17:45 Coffee Break

17:45-19:15 Concluding Round Table: Israeli Legal History:
The Agenda for the Next Decade

Chair: Pnina Lahav, Law, Boston
Panelists: William Fisher III, Law, Harvard
Harold Hyman, History, Rice
Duncan Kennedy, Law, Harvard
Eben Moglen, Law, Columbia
David Sugarman, Law, Lancaster
Lawrence Friedman, Law, Stanford