Professor Uri Herstein has been on the Law Faculty since 2014. He holds the Montesquieu Chair for Comparative Law and Legal History and serves as the Vice Dean for Curriculum. He also holds the position of honorary visiting professor at the law school of King's College London, where he previously served as a permanent faculty member for over a decade. Finally, Professor Herstein is an associate editor of the journal Law and Philosophy.
In the past, Professor Herstein served as a visiting professor at the law schools of Harvard University, Cornell University, Columbia University, and Peking University. He was also the director of the Harry and Michael Sacher Institute for Legislative Research and Comparative Law at the Hebrew University and served as the editor of the Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies.
Professor Herstein has a master's degree (with highest honors) and a doctorate (under the guidance of Professor Joseph Raz) from Columbia University in New York, and undergraduate degrees in law and philosophy from Tel Aviv University (with honors).
Before joining academia, Professor Herstein was admitted to the Israel Bar and to the New York Bar, and practiced law in the litigation department of the law offices of Fried, Frank Harris, Shriver & Jacobson in New York City. He completed his clerkship under Judge Drora Pilpel at the District Court in Tel Aviv.
Professor Herstein teaches and writes on rights theory, tort law, private law theory, procedure, and various topics in legal and moral philosophy. His publications have appeared in a variety of leading publications in philosophy and law, such as:
The Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Legal Theory, Law and Philosophy, The University of Toronto Law Journal, Philosophical Studies, Philosopher's Imprint, the Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, The George Washington Law Review, The Journal of Applied Philosophy, and Mind.
Education
Bachelor's degree in Law and Philosophy, Tel Aviv University.
Master's studies in Philosophy, Tel Aviv University.
Master's degree in Law, Columbia University.
Doctoral degree in Law, Columbia University.
Representative Publications
The Procedure of Morality, 27 (1) Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy (2024) (with Ofer Malcai).
Legal Rights, Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (2023).
Justifying Standing, 20 (7) Philosophers’ Imprint, 1-18 (2020).
Understanding Standing: Permission to Deflect Reasons, 174 (12) Philosophical Studies, 3109-3132 (2017).
How Tort Law Empowers, 65(1) University of Toronto Law Journal, 99-132 (2015).
A Legal Right to Do Legal Wrong, 34(1) Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, 21-45 (2014).
Defending the Right to Do Wrong, 31(3) Law and Philosophy, 343-365 (2012).
A Normative Theory of the Clean Hands Defense, 17(3) Legal Theory, 171-208 (2011).