Mishpat Ivri

Mishpat Ivri, Hebrew for Jewish or Hebrew law and jurisprudence, names those aspects of halakha, traditional Jewish law, that are relevant to non-religious or secular law. The term also refers to an academic approach to the Jewish legal tradition and to the effort to apply that tradition to modern Israeli law. The idea of a Western-style body of law distinct from religious halakha appeared in Mandate Palestine as part of the Zionist revivalist movement. The field tends to exclude areas of halakha that are not comparable to modern civil law, such as criminal law and religious law, and covers subjects including property rights, torts, contracts, public law, sales, renting, negligence, legal liability and copyright. In the modern State of Israel it is one of the lesser ongoing sources of civil law, which developed on the model of British common law; its gains include the Foundations of Law Act of 1980, which allows judicial reasoning to draw on halakha. Rabbinic courts keep dominant jurisdiction over marriage and divorce.