The Draft Civil Code for Israel in Comparative Perspective

The volume is based on a symposium that took place in the Hamburg Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law. It has to be seen in the context of the international renaissance of the concept of codification. When the State of Israel was founded in 1948, it was essentially a common law jurisdiction. Since then, Israeli private law has continuously moved closer towards the model of the civilian systems of Continental Europe. It has now, for the first time, been laid down in a comprehensive and systematic Draft Civil Code. In an introductory article, Aharon Barak, the former President of the Supreme Court of Israel and Chairman of the Codification Commission, presents that Draft in the context of the development of private law in Israel. Israeli Professors from the Universities of Tel Aviv and Jerusalem then analyze key areas within the law of obligations and property law of the envisaged codification, while a German or Austrian author, respectively, provide commentaries from a comparative perspective. The subjects dealt with are the integration of consumer protection, liability for breach of contract, unjustified enrichment, the law of delict, priority conflicts in property law, and the law of prescription (limitation). Central themes that come out in many of the contributions are the tension between continuity and change as well as the issue of coherence. The volume is rounded off by comments on the subject of codification, by a speech on the occasion of Amos Shapira's 70th birthday that was celebrated in the course of the conference, and by an English translation of the Draft Civil Code.