Prof. Michal Shur-Ofry specializes in intellectual property, innovation, law and technology, complexity and network science, and teaches various courses and seminars on these topics. She received her LL.B. (Magna cum Laude) and Ph.D. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and her LL.M. from University College London, as a Chevening–Sainer scholar.
Prof. Shur-Ofry’s studies the law from an interdisciplinary perspective. Her recent scholarship focuses on the use of complex systems and network theory in the design of legal policy. As part of this endeavor she designed and has been teaching pioneering courses that expose law students to the cutting-edge field of complexity and its implications for the law. She also studies innovation theory (with a focus on irregular innovation), and the interface between law and collective memory. She authored numerous articles and one book in these areas. More details about her research can be found here.
Before joining the Hebrew University, Prof. Shur-Ofry was the head of the intellectual property practice in a prominent Israeli law firm.
Since 2017 Prof. Shur-Ofry serves as the head of the law faculty’s research committee. She is also a member of the steering committee of the Huji-Innovate Entreperneurship Center, and takes part in various interdisciplinary programs, including the Biodesign-Medical Innovation Program, the Cyber-law Research Center .
Prof. Shur-Ofry was a visiting Professor at the law faculties of Georgetown University and the University of British Columbia, and a visiting scholar at New York University’s Engelberg Innovation Center.
Education
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law, Ph.D, 2009
University College London, Univeristy of London, LL.M. (Merit), 1997
Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Faculty of Law, LL.B. (Magna Cum Laude), 1994
Representative publications
Using Complexity to Calibrate Legal Response to Covid-19, 9 Front. Phys., 650943:1-13 (2021) (with Ofer Malcai), https://doi.org/10.3389/fphy.2021.650943
Out of Sight: Patents that Have Never Been Cited, 126(4) Scientometrics, 2903-2929 (2021) (with Neil Gandal, Michael Crystal & Royee Shilony,
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11192-020-03849-z
Institutions for Collective Action and Social Contagion —Community Gardens as a Case Study, 15(1) Regulation & Governance 63-81 (2021) (with Ofer Malcai), available at
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/rego.12256
Robotic Collective Memory, 97 Washington University L.Rev. 975 (2020) (with Guy Pessach),
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3364008
Copyright and the Holocaust, 30 Yale J. L. and the Humanities 121-172 (2018) (with Guy Pessach) https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3162530
The Diffusion of Legal Innovation—Insights from Mathematical Modeling, 52 Cornell Int’l L. J. 313 (2019) (with Gadi Fibich & Shira Green),
https://www.lawschool.cornell.edu/research/ILJ/upload/Shur-Ofry-final.pdf
Connect the Dots: Patents and Interdisciplinarity, 51 Michigan J. L. Ref. 55 (2017),
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2985341