Professor

Hanoch

Dagan

Hanoch Dagan is the Elizabeth J. Boalt Distinguished Professor of Law and the founding Director of the Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory.

Professor Dagan writes and teaches primarily in the areas of private law theory, contracts, property, and legal theory. Among his many publications are over 140 articles in major law reviews and journals, such as Yale Law Journal, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, Columbia Law Review, Michigan Law Review, California Law Review, and more. Dagan is the author of nine books, including Property: Values and Institutions(opens in a new tab) (Oxford University Press, 2011), Reconstructing American Legal Realism & Rethinking Private Law Theory(opens in a new tab) (Oxford University Press, 2013), The Choice Theory of Contracts(opens in a new tab) (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (with Michael A. Heller), A Liberal Theory of Property(opens in a new tab) (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law(opens in a new tab) (Oxford University Press, 2024) (with Avihay Dorfman) . He edited six books, including Properties of Property(opens in a new tab) (Wolters Kluwer, 2012) (with Gregory S. Alexander) and Research Handbook on Private Law Theory(opens in a new tab) (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) (with Benjamin Zipursky). Dagan’s latest book, Advanced Introduction to Private Law Theory(opens in a new tab), just came out with Edward Elgar Publishing.

Before joining the Berkeley faculty in fall 2023, Professor Dagan was the Stewart and Judy Colton Professor of Legal Theory and Innovation and the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel-Aviv University. Professor Dagan is also a former Dean of TAU’s Faculty of Law and served as the founding Director of the Zvi Meitar Center for Advanced Legal Studies, the Director of The Cegla Center for Interdisciplinary Research of the Law, and the Editor in Chief of Theoretical Inquiries in Law.

Professor Dagan has been a visiting professor at Yale, Columbia, Michigan, Cornell, UCLA, and Toronto. Dagan delivered keynote speeches and endowed lectures at Singapore, Alabama, Toronto, Queensland, Cape Town, Monash (Melbourne), and Oxford. He is a member of the American Law Institute and the International Academy of Comparative Law.