TortsProf Blog

Sinai & Shmueli on Maimonides and Tort Theory

Yuval Sinai & Benny Shmueli have published Maimonides and Contemporary Tort Theory with Cambridge University Press.  The blurb provides:

Maimonides lived in Spain and Egypt in the twelfth century, and is perhaps the most widely studied figure in Jewish history. This book presents, for the first time, Maimonides' complete tort theory and how it compares with other tort theories both in the Jewish world and beyond. Drawing on sources old and new as well as religious and secular, Maimonides and Contemporary Tort Theory offers fresh interdisciplinary perspectives on important moral, consequentialist, economic, and religious issues that will be of interest to both religious and secular scholars. The authors mention several surprising points of similarity between certain elements of theories recently formulated by North American scholars and the Maimonidean theory. Alongside these similarities significant differences are also highlighted, some of them deriving from conceptual-jurisprudential differences and some from the difference between religious law and secular-liberal law.

Shmueli on Tort, Contract & Family Law

On October 23rd, Widener Law had the pleasure of hosting Benjamin Shmueli as he presented "Tort and Family Law:  Civil Actions for Acts that are Valid According to Religious Family Law but Harm the Rights of Spouses."  Shmueli is Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at Bar-Ilan University in Israel and, from 2013-2015, Senior Research Scholar at the Yale Law School.

Shmueli's engaging presentation focused on two case studies. Refusal to grant a get—a Jewish bill of
divorce—in Jewish law and divorcing a wife unilaterally and against her will in Shari'a law (talaq/ repudiation) are practices permitted—even if not desirable—by religious law.  Shmueli argues that tort and contract law should be integrated, sensitively, with religious law.  His justifications:  a property rules/liability rules framework, legal pluralism, and justice-based considerations.  I am looking forward to the full book.  A short prospectus is here:  Download Tort_and_Family_Law-Short_Prospectus (1)