The Center for Empirical Legal Studies of Decision Making and the Law brings together researchers from different fields from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Technion – Israel Institute of Technology. The Center is an initiative of the government of Israel to generate innovative empirical legal research, particularly in the field of decision making and the law. The Center is expected to make a significant intellectual and practical contribution both from an intellectual and a practical perspective. With respect to the former, the studies conducted in the Center shed new light on ongoing debates regarding the way in which the law influences behavior. They answer questions such as: are people rational or are their decisions biased in a systematic fashion; and does the law function merely as a price-setting device, or does it affect behavior in other, more subtle ways? As to the latter, the findings of the studies will likely lend themselves to numerous concrete policy debates. The Center is supported by the I-CORE Program of the Planning and Budgeting Committee and the Israel Science Foundation.