Topic:Rights-based Law vs. Duties-based Law: The Contribution of Jewish Law to Modern Legal Discourse

Speaker: Professor Benjamin Porat

Moderator:Assistant Professor Jianping Guo

Time: 29 September, 2021, 7:00-8:30 pm Beijing Time

Venue: Zoom Meeting

Zoom ID: 868 7200 3785

Passcode: 568515

Introduction to the lecture:The concept of right stands at the very center of Western legal universe. An imaginary alternative legal universe might have similar legal norms, except that they are centered on the concept of duty. Is there any significant difference between these two legal universes? The Hohfeldian assumption of complete correlativity between rights and duties might imply that the difference between these two universes is merely a matter of rhetoric. This article, however, argues that a rights-based legal world would presumably be significantly different from a legal world based upon duties.For this purpose, the article examines classical and modern legal sources from the Western legal tradition, and compare them to Jewish law sources, which demonstrates atypical example of a duty-based legal system.

Introduction to the speaker:Benjamin Porat is a Professor of law and the Director of the Matz Institute for Research in Jewish Law, at the Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Prof. Porat is a Gruss Professor of Talmudic Law at Penn Law School. He completed his PhD at the Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University (LL.D. summa cum laude). After completing his doctorate in 2010, he was a Halbert Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Toronto. Prof. Porat focuses on the areas of theory of Jewish law, contract law, and distributive justice. Prof. Porat is the editor of Shenaton ha’Mishpat ha’Ivri and a coeditor of the Jewish Law Annual.His works have appeared in numerous publications including University of Toronto Law Journal, American Journal of Comparative Law, Columbia Journal of Gender and Law. Recently he published his new book, entitled "Justice for the Poor: The Principles of Welfare Regulations from Biblical Law to Rabbinic Literature" (Hebrew).