2005-2006 Berkowitz Fellow
Dr. Shahar Lifshitz
Dr. Shahar Lifshitz is a senior lecturer, Faculty of Law, Bar-Ilan University, Israel. He received a Bachelor Degree in Law and Psychology from Bar-Ilan University in 1996, and his Ph.D. in Law from the same institution in 2002. His doctoral dissertation, which received a distinction, is titled Contractual Regulation of Spousal Relationship in Civil Law. Dr. Lifshitz's areas of academic interest are contractual law and family law especially the philosophical basis of these fields. In 2004, he won the Alon scholarship for the "excellent scientist," awarded by the Higher Council for Academic Studies in Israel which fully sponsors young scholars in their university positions for three years. In 2005, he won the Rothschild Fellowship for post-doctorate program as well as the Fulbright Award.
Dr. Lifshitz is a researcher in the Israeli Institute for Democracy, which advances a process of legislation for an accepted constitution for Israel. His specific task is to suggest a version for a law which will regulate the registration of secular spouses in Israel to the civil spousal register. He participates in the meetings of the legislative committee of the "Kneset" and counseling of the legislators in family law issues. He is Legislative Committee Member of the Ministry of Justice on the Israeli law for the rights of children. He lectures at seminars for judges and lawyers in the fields of family law and contract law. Finally, Dr. Lifshitz was appointed to a judge of the special court of adhesion contracts
Recently, his first book Cohabitation Law in Israel from the Perspective of a Civil Law Theory of the Family, written in Hebrew and published by Haifa University Press in 2005, was awarded The Bahat Prize. Dr. Lifshitz is currently editing his second book Civil Regulation of Spousal Regulation for publication by The Harry and Michael Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law, Faculty of Law, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel. His publication list includes, among others:
"The Future of Secular Family Law in the Next Fifty Years: Classical Liberalism vs. Commuinitarian Liberalism," Bar-Ilan Law Studies 17 (1) 2001 159.
"A Civil Reorientation in Israeli Family Law," ed. By Prof. Yedidia Z. Stern & Dr. Yaffa Zilbershats, Tzivyon (3) 2002.
"Equality in Marriage, the Right to Divorce and Autonomy of Communitarian–," Tel Aviv University Law Review, 27 2003, 139. (Hebrew)
"The External Rights of Cohabitations," Israel Law Review, 37 (2) 346.
At NYU School of Law, he will work on projects in the subjects of cohabitation law and property relationship between spouses as well as on project deals with "Unconscionability Contracts: A Jewish Law Perspective."
