Avihay Dorfman

Dorfman is a Professor of Law and the founding Academic Director of the Private Law Theory Program at the University of Texas at Austin. His work examines the theoretical foundations of law, particularly its claims to justice and to legitimacy. He has written on fundamental questions in private law theory and doctrine, as well as on the morality of public ordering. His research addresses issues such as the demands of substantive equality in private law, the value of private ordering, the wrongfulness of discrimination, the moral limits of privatization, public ownership, and the legitimacy of political authority. Across these topics, Dorfman highlights the non-instrumental values that underpin key legal and political institutions. He explores how law constructs valuable forms of interaction between—and among—individuals, focusing on its non-contingent normative implications.

Dorfman is currently working on a tort theory book titled Conflict between Equals: Tort Law for a Liberal Society (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2026). He is also the co-author, most recently, of Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law (Oxford University Press 2024), with Hanoch Dagan, and Reclaiming the Public (Cambridge University Press 2024), with Alon Harel.

His scholarship has also appeared in leading journals such as Philosophy & Public Affairs, Columbia Law Review, Oxford Journal of Legal Studies, University of Toronto Law Journal, Legal Theory, Law & Philosophy, Notre Dame Law Review, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, American Journal of Jurisprudence, Modern Law Review, among others. His work has been selected for presentation at the Harvard/Stanford/Yale Junior Faculty Forum and at the International Junior Faculty Forum.

Dorfman holds a J.S.D. and LL.M. from Yale Law School and LL.B. and B.A. (economics) from Haifa University. He clerked for The Honorable Aharon Barak, then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel, and served as a legal adviser to (then) Justice Esther Hayut of the Supreme Court of Israel. Dorfman has been a visiting professor at Harvard Law School and Cornell Law School. Before Joining the University of Texas at Austin, he was a Professor of Law at Tel Aviv University.