Alon Harel is a Mizock professor at the law faculty at the Hebrew University and a member of Federmann Center for the Study of Rationality. Harel’s areas of research include moral, political and legal philosophy, criminal law, law and economics, and human rights. In recent years he developed and refined a theory which perceives law to be of intrinsic rather than instrumental value. Under this view, the desirability of legal and political institutions is not contingent; such institutions are necessary for the realization of valuable ends. Harel has also written extensively on constitutional theory and in particular on the grounds for the legitimacy of constitutions. He is currently working on a book on constitutional theory. His books include Why Law Matters (OUP, 2014); Reclaiming the Public (CUP, 2024).

Education

LL.B., Hebrew University, (1983) (with distinction).
LL.M., Hebrew University (1985) (with distinction). 
D. Phil. (Philosophy of Law) (1988) (Balliol College, Oxford). 

Representative Publications:

Books:

Reclaiming the Public (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming 2024)
Why Law Matters (Oxford University Press, 2014):

Articles:

Disobedience as Such 15 Jurisprudence, 497-514 (2024).

The Necessity of Institutional Pluralism Oxford Journal of Legal Studies (2023) (with Avihay Dorfman).

Two Concepts of Constitutional Legitimacy Global Constitutionalism (2023) (with Avihay Dorfman).

Law as Standing 4 Oxford Studies in Philosophy of Law, 93 (2021) (with A. Dorfman).

Embracing the Tension Between National and International Human Rights Law: The Case for Discordant Parity, 15 International Journal of Constitutional law 36-59 (2017).

Against Privatization as Such, 36 Oxford Journal of Legal Studies 400-427 (2016) (with A. Dorfman).

The Duty to Criminalize, 34 Law & Philosophy 1-22 (2015).

The Case Against Privatization, 41 Philosophy & Public Affairs 67-102 (2013) (with A. Dorfman).