Modern Legal Thought and Jewish Law

The Jewish religion contains a large and complex legal system. Norms such as democracy and gender equality make it difficult to enact Jewish laws in modern society. However, some of the concepts in Jewish law can be useful for modern legal thinkers. In a video interview, Suzanne Last Stone, professor at Cardozo Law, talks about how Jewish law can be integrated into today's legal thought. For instance, the Jewish legal system is a system of obligations, rather than of rights. Individuals must adhere to a list of obligations and may incur penalties if they violate them. Nowhere in Jewish law are people guaranteed what we call "human rights." Freedom of speech is not mentioned, nor is their a right to not be enslaved. Rather, a person is allowed to speak as long as he doesn't violate one of the rules of speech (such as slander). A person is free until he commits a crime and is unable to pay restitution, at which point he is sold into slavery.

In a democratic world, we are of course not advocating taking away civil rights. However, it is possible that some of the world's legal systems focus too much on individual's rights and not enough on their obligations. This may make it easier to harm others or hurt the collective.

An example of a concept in Jewish law has been incorporated into today's legal systems is the idea that there is a core legal document that can't be changed. In Jewish religion, that core is the Torah. Since it is the Divine word, the Torah can't be changed. It can be interpreted and reinterpreted, but the core remains. So too, the Constitution of the United States. The core of the American legal system is the Constitution. It has a built in system for amendments (similar to Judaism's Oral Law) and is also open to interpretation. Since the 1970s, legal scholars in America have debated whether the Constitution should be interpreted broadly or narrowly. The broad interpretation camp has been winning that argument, as ever-increasingly liberal courts give individuals more and more rights under the Constitution. But even those interpreters recognize that the core is unchangeable.

Many countries which do not have a Constitution are considering implementing one, because of this desire to have their core values set in stone, similar to the Divine law.