The Lionel Cohen Annual Lecture Series

The Lionel Cohen Annual Lecture series is held at the Law Faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem continually since 1953. The series is organized by The British Friends of the Hebrew University. It is regarded as one of the major annual events at the Law Faculty, and marks the unique relations between the British and the Israeli judiciaries and legal communities in general.
 
This series of lectures is named in honor of Lord Lionel Cohen. Lionel Cohen was born in 1888. In 1943,during the Second World War, he was appointed as a judge in the High Court. He then was appointed to the Court of Appeal and in 1951 he was appointed a Law Lord entering the House of Lords, where he served until his retirement in 1961. Cohen chaired many Royal Commissions in the years following the Second World War, particularly in the areas of company law and compensation. From 1946 to 1956 he chaired the Royal Commission on Awards to Inventors, which acknowledged scientists who had made technological advances.

Lionel Cohen was also very active in the British Jewish Community, and served as the President of the Jewish Welfare Board (now the Jewish Care). Lionel Cohen died in 1973. 

The Lionel Cohen lecture series was established in 1953, shortly after the establishment of the law faculty of the Hebrew University in 1949. Lionel Cohen's son, the Honourable Leonard Cohen, has maintained the interest in the Lectureship. He served as the President of the Jewish Colonisation Association. Jonathan Cohen, the grandson of Lionel Cohen, is now the Trustee of the Fund for the Lectureship.