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 Universi