The Jurist
Emil von Hofmannsthal (1884-1971): A Scientific-Intellectual Biography
Dor Correct
This thesis examines the life and work of Emil von Hofmannsthal (1884-1971), an Austrian-Jewish jurist devoted to advancing the rights of marginalized groups. Although influential in his time, Hofmannsthal has been largely forgotten. The project reconstructs his legacy through a scientific-intellectual biography, situating him within broader legal and political developments. Central themes include minority rights, matrimonial laws, and international advocacy for stateless persons and refugees. The study highlights the law’s dual capacity as a tool for both protection and oppression in the modern state.
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Betw
een Tradition and Modernity: Equality Before the Law at the 1861 Hungarian High Judge Conference
Asaf Segal Doron
This research examines the term “equality before the law” as it was used at the 1861 High Judge Conference in Hungary. Although this principle was central to the liberal movements of the era, its precise meaning remained largely unexplored by both contemporaries and historians. Through a discourse analysis of the conference’s protocols, this research aims to uncover how Hungarian legal experts conceptualized legal equality. This analysis contributes to a deeper understanding of the meaning and significance of the principle of equality before the law during a pivotal moment in Hungarian legal history.
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The Nonidentical of Human Rights: The Individual and the Concept of Dignity in post-1945 Human Rights Debates
Anne Rethmann
This PhD project analyzes post-1945 human rights debates, with particular emphasis on dignity as a legal concept and the political implications of both individualistic and collective interpretations. It critically examines collective approaches to human rights and interrogates the assumptions on which they rest. Drawing on Adorno’s concept of the Nonidentical, the project explores how dignity might be more precisely conceptualized. It further engages with the work of lawyer Franz R. Bienenfeld, who argues that the interests of the Jewish community neither supersede nor yield to universal human rights, but are instead mutually dependent on them.
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Israeli Transnational Rights
Dr. Jonathan Grossman
This research analyzes the rights and services the State of Israel has granted to people living outside its territory. It shows how political actors in Israel have tried to give certain rights and services to different groups at different times. The project emphasizes Israel's attitudes toward Israeli emigrants and Jewish communities abroad, and shows how and why various Israeli state actors have tried to strengthen—or constrain—these populations by giving them—or withholding from them—certain rights and services.
Recognition as Decolonization: An Intellectual-Cultural History of the Two-State Solution, 1948-1988
Dr. Eli Osheroff
The research project examines the journey of the Palestinian National Movement towards
formal recognition of the partition and the State of Israel between 1948 and 1988. It aims to understand what historical conditions allowed the Palestinian national movement to compromise on its most significant ambitions – an unpartitioned, independent homeland– while still considering this compromise a moment of liberation.
Minorities and the State: Non-Territorial Autonomy in the Baltics, 1914-1940
Dr. Timo Aava
This project studies the intellectual and political history of collective rights in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century based on the case of Estonia. At the heart of this project are the political debates over autonomy in the imperial setting, law-making in the interwar period and practising minority self-government in democratic and authoritarian contexts.
Gabriel Bach and the Prosecution of Nazis in the State of Israel
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston
The research reviews the main contributions of prosecutor and Justice Gabriel Bach to four legal cases in which the Holocaust and its perpetrators were prosecuted in Israeli courts: the appeals proceeding in the Gruenwald-Kastner trial (1957), the Eichmann trial (1960-1962), the efforts to prosecute and extradite Gustav Franz Wagner (1978-1979), and the Demjanjuk trial (1993). The research proposes a historical and legal explanation for Bach's actions and portrays the evolution of Israel’s legal efforts vis-à-vis Nazi criminals and their collaborators over the years.
The paper was published in Tel-Aviv University Law Review (Iyunei Mishpat) on 31.03.2022.
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A Survivor, Legislator and Jurist: Joseph Lamm’s Legal Legacy in Relation to the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law (1950)
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston & Prof. Dan Porat
The research examines Joseph Lamm's part in the enactment of the Nazis and Nazi Collaborators Law of 1950 and in rulings based on it in the Israeli courts. The research claims that Lamm's experience as a prisoner in the Dachau camp shaped his legal views with respect to Jews accused of collaborating with the Nazis, as reflected in his roles as both legislator and judge.
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A Trial Without a Defendant
Dr. Yehudit Dori Deston
The research reveals the records of a mock trial conducted in 1985 in Jerusalem for SS officer Josef Mengele, in the absence of the accused. At the heart of the proceedings stood the testimonies of 30 Auschwitz survivors, which were intended to serve as proof of Mengele’s crimes when he would be brought to a "real" criminal trial. The research examines the difference between criminal proceedings and other stages, including semi-legal proceedings, for the purposes of documentation, commemoration, and shaping the collective memory of the Holocaust.
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