A few days ago, I had the chance to visit the University of Tel Aviv Law School to present my latest research (which I’m striving to make SSRN-ready in the next few weeks) in Talia Fisher’s Rethinking The Issue Of Commodification seminar. Typical of the inter-university generosity I’ve encountered while I’ve been here, the introduction to Talia was a circuitous one. I met Yuval Feldman, of Bar-Ilan, at a great conference on the Behavioral Analysis of Law: Markets, Institutions, and Contracts, organized by Avishalom Tor of Haifa. Yuval recognized right away that I would benefit from meeting his colleague at Bar-Ilan, Tsilly Dagan, who also writes on commodification issues, particularly as it relates to tax (more on that in a minute). Tsilly then made the connection to Talia, and a fabulous afternoon (for me, anyway) at Tel Aviv was born.
For Lounge readers who don’t know, Tsilly Dagan is a Senior Lecturer (with tenure) at Bar-Ilan, where she teaches various courses on tax law and tax policy, as well as a course on Law & Social Justice. Much of Dagan’s recent research focuses on the intersection of tax law and commodification. See, for example, her recent articles on Itemizing Personhood, Virginia Tax Review (Forthcoming, summer 2009), and Commodification Without Money, Theoretical Inquiries in Law Forum (Forthcoming 2010).
Talia Fisher is a senior lecturer (with tenure) and the director of the Taubenschlag Institute of Criminal Law at Tel Aviv, where she teaches Evidence Law, Evidence Law Theory, ADR, and Negotiation Theory. Talia’s primary research interests include the private supply of legal institutions and probabilistic applications in procedural law, though she also writes on commodification and alienability issues, including a recent paper with Dagan on Rights for Sale (previously titled A Market for Public Entitlements in the SSRN version).
The paper interests me because it expands the horizons of the alienability discussion beyond its traditional arenas of taboo markets (such as organs, babies and sexuality) to the terrain of “Public Entitlements,” Dagan and Fisher’s term for the host of rights that individuals enjoy in relation to the government, including voting rights, the right to trial, the right against self-incrimination, the right to public education, the right to pollute, and various subsidies and tax attributes. Dagan and Fisher argue that there is nothing inherently inalienable about Public Entitlements (“PEs”) and that concerns over full-fledged alienability can be addressed through targeted restrictions on different dimensions of alienability, without resorting to complete inalienability. Moreover, they contend that analyzing alienability in the context of PEs highlights the richness of the normative considerations underlying alienability.
For dinner, we were joined by Menachem (“Menny”) Mautner, the Daniel Rubinstein Chair Professor of Comparative Civil Law and Jurisprudence at Tel Aviv, and the school’s former Dean. Menny teaches courses in contract law and a seminar on Markets and Culture, and has published numerous articles and book chapters in the areas of contract law, law and culture, and multiculturalism.
It was a great evening, with a lively discussion of many topics. Naturally much of the conversation centered on our shared interests in commodification, alienability, and markets and culture. But we managed to find time to touch on everything from the weather in Boston, women in the armed forces, and the Israeli love of cell phones, as well. All in all, a day and an evening that was more than worth the trip down from Haifa.
Above: View of Tel Aviv
Michael Dorf and Sherry Colb are at the "Inter-Disciplinary Center" at Herzliya, Israel for a couple of weeks. Is that far from you? You should look them up and get together!
Posted by: Patrick S. O'Donnell | December 28, 2009 at 11:21 PM
Thats funny. Its not far at all. I guess Israel is the place to be this month . . .
Posted by: Kim Krawiec | December 29, 2009 at 12:48 AM