Avihay Dorfman
Biographic Data
| ID | 4391985 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Avihay Dorfman |
| GIVEN NAMES | Avihay |
| FAMILY NAME | Dorfman |
| SIGNATURE | DORFMAN A |
| AFFILIATIONS | Tel Aviv University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-3370-7489 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 15 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 16 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 15 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2011 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
The Independence of Tort Law
This paper seeks to identify a structural gap between the principle of freedom as independence and the law of torts in the common law tradition. Contrary to influential arguments made by contemporary proponents of this principle, I argue that independence can neither illuminate nor justify core areas of tort law. This shortcoming has broader implications for the larger question of what difference—that is, distinctive difference—tort law makes in …
Public Ownership
Public nuisance for private persons
The public nuisance tort is now in a critical stage of development, mostly in the United States but also in other jurisdictions, including civil law systems. It is becoming ever more consequential in practice and, at the same time, widely misunderstood by courts and scholars. Our ambition is to defend a private law theory of public nuisance. Contrary to the view that the underlying rights protected by this tort contrast with private rights (say, …
The work of tort law: Why nonconsensual access to the workplace matters
Tort law does many things—it determines substantive rights, decides what counts as violating these rights, recognizes rights of repair, and grants rights of redress. Two non-instrumentalist conceptions of tort law appear to dominate how we are supposed to understand and discharge these tasks. One conception takes tort law to be the law of wrongs, whereas the other conception identifies tort law with the law of victim recourse. I argue that both c…
Precontractual Justice
This article develops a theory of just contractual relationships for a liberal society. As a liberal theory, our account is premised on liberalism's canonical commitments to self-determination and substantive equality. As a theory of contract law, it focuses on the parties’ interpersonal interactions rather than on the justice (or welfare) of the social order as a whole. Normatively, the article claims that the rules governing cases where one par…
The domain of private law
Private law theories tend to narrowly delineate their ambitions: many theories limit private law’s normative aspirations to a circumscribed set of liberalism’s core commitments, restrict its horizons to the boundaries of the state, and marry its norms with only one type of legal institution (courts). These limited ambitions, we argue in this article, are normatively unwarranted. Each of these (often implicit) limitations distorts our understandin…
When, and how, does property matter
This article seeks to reclaim for property law and theory the centrality of two hitherto neglected questions: when does property matter and, to the extent that it does, precisely how. I argue that, in some cases, the property owner’s entitlement to exclude others has virtually nothing to do with the right to property; property, then, is epiphenomenal. At other times, an entitlement to exclude cannot exist independently of having a right to proper…
Against Privatisation As Such
Privatisation has occupied the attention of theorists of different disciplines. Yet, despite the multiplicity of perspectives, the typical arguments concerning privatisation are instrumental, relying heavily on comparing the performance of a public functionary with that of its private counterpart. This article challenges this approach for leaving unaddressed other important consequences of shifting responsibilities to private entities. More speci…
The fault of trespass
The conventional wisdom has it that a property owner assumes virtually no responsibility for guiding others in fulfilling their duties not to trespass on the former’s property. In other words, the entire risk of making an unauthorized use of the property in question rests upon the duty-holders. This view is best captured by the keep-off picture of property, according to which the content of the duty in question is that of excluding oneself from a…
Private ownership and the standing to say so
Property theory is an ongoing discourse attempting to articulate a compelling answer (or answers) to the following question: what is the single most significant or otherwise interesting thing about the concept of private ownership? In this article, I seek to advance three general claims in response to this question. First, I criticize certain leading attempts to answer this question. Second, the centrepiece of my article defends the claim that an…
The Case Against Privatization
The Society of Property
The basic question that arises in connection with the distinction between property and contract is, what accounts for the general scope that property rights and duties, unlike their contractual counterparts, share? The most typical theoretical approach to this question has so far been to emphasize certain extrinsic circumstances, such as transaction costs or the normative priority of protecting property over contract rights. But the problem with …
The Normativity of the Private Ownership Form
One of the most acute charges against private property observes that ownership generates a trespassory duty of exclusion that far exceeds the requirements of a commitment to values such as freedom and well‐being, and accordingly there exists an analytical mismatch between the form of protecting ownership and the functions that this protection may serve. This article develops a novel account of ownership's normativity, maintaining that, apart from…
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can …
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can …
The Case Against Privatization
The Society of Property
The basic question that arises in connection with the distinction between property and contract is, what accounts for the general scope that property rights and duties, unlike their contractual counterparts, share? The most typical theoretical approach to this question has so far been to emphasize certain extrinsic circumstances, such as transaction costs or the normative priority of protecting property over contract rights. But the problem with …
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can …
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can …
Property and Collective Undertaking: The Principle of Numerus Clausus
In this article, I seek to reclaim for property theory the legitimation concern that is the kernel of the principle of numerus clausus (which is a restriction that means that it cannot be up to private persons to create new forms of property right, but only to trade rights that take existing forms). I advance two general claims. First, functional accounts of this principle cannot but fail adequately to explain it. Second, the numerus clausus can …
The Society of Property
The basic question that arises in connection with the distinction between property and contract is, what accounts for the general scope that property rights and duties, unlike their contractual counterparts, share? The most typical theoretical approach to this question has so far been to emphasize certain extrinsic circumstances, such as transaction costs or the normative priority of protecting property over contract rights. But the problem with …
The Normativity of the Private Ownership Form
One of the most acute charges against private property observes that ownership generates a trespassory duty of exclusion that far exceeds the requirements of a commitment to values such as freedom and well‐being, and accordingly there exists an analytical mismatch between the form of protecting ownership and the functions that this protection may serve. This article develops a novel account of ownership's normativity, maintaining that, apart from…
The Case Against Privatization
Private ownership and the standing to say so
Property theory is an ongoing discourse attempting to articulate a compelling answer (or answers) to the following question: what is the single most significant or otherwise interesting thing about the concept of private ownership? In this article, I seek to advance three general claims in response to this question. First, I criticize certain leading attempts to answer this question. Second, the centrepiece of my article defends the claim that an…
The fault of trespass
The conventional wisdom has it that a property owner assumes virtually no responsibility for guiding others in fulfilling their duties not to trespass on the former’s property. In other words, the entire risk of making an unauthorized use of the property in question rests upon the duty-holders. This view is best captured by the keep-off picture of property, according to which the content of the duty in question is that of excluding oneself from a…
Against Privatisation As Such
Privatisation has occupied the attention of theorists of different disciplines. Yet, despite the multiplicity of perspectives, the typical arguments concerning privatisation are instrumental, relying heavily on comparing the performance of a public functionary with that of its private counterpart. This article challenges this approach for leaving unaddressed other important consequences of shifting responsibilities to private entities. More speci…
The domain of private law
Private law theories tend to narrowly delineate their ambitions: many theories limit private law’s normative aspirations to a circumscribed set of liberalism’s core commitments, restrict its horizons to the boundaries of the state, and marry its norms with only one type of legal institution (courts). These limited ambitions, we argue in this article, are normatively unwarranted. Each of these (often implicit) limitations distorts our understandin…
When, and how, does property matter
This article seeks to reclaim for property law and theory the centrality of two hitherto neglected questions: when does property matter and, to the extent that it does, precisely how. I argue that, in some cases, the property owner’s entitlement to exclude others has virtually nothing to do with the right to property; property, then, is epiphenomenal. At other times, an entitlement to exclude cannot exist independently of having a right to proper…
Precontractual Justice
This article develops a theory of just contractual relationships for a liberal society. As a liberal theory, our account is premised on liberalism's canonical commitments to self-determination and substantive equality. As a theory of contract law, it focuses on the parties’ interpersonal interactions rather than on the justice (or welfare) of the social order as a whole. Normatively, the article claims that the rules governing cases where one par…
The work of tort law: Why nonconsensual access to the workplace matters
Tort law does many things—it determines substantive rights, decides what counts as violating these rights, recognizes rights of repair, and grants rights of redress. Two non-instrumentalist conceptions of tort law appear to dominate how we are supposed to understand and discharge these tasks. One conception takes tort law to be the law of wrongs, whereas the other conception identifies tort law with the law of victim recourse. I argue that both c…
Public Ownership
Public nuisance for private persons
The public nuisance tort is now in a critical stage of development, mostly in the United States but also in other jurisdictions, including civil law systems. It is becoming ever more consequential in practice and, at the same time, widely misunderstood by courts and scholars. Our ambition is to defend a private law theory of public nuisance. Contrary to the view that the underlying rights protected by this tort contrast with private rights (say, …
The Independence of Tort Law
This paper seeks to identify a structural gap between the principle of freedom as independence and the law of torts in the common law tradition. Contrary to influential arguments made by contemporary proponents of this principle, I argue that independence can neither illuminate nor justify core areas of tort law. This shortcoming has broader implications for the larger question of what difference—that is, distinctive difference—tort law makes in …
Political science (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Law and economics (13 works) · Legal principles and applications (11 works) · Sociology (10 works) · Business (8 works) · Law (8 works) · Property Rights and Legal Doctrine (8 works) · Epistemology (7 works) · Philosophy (6 works)