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 (Oxford University Press, 2011), Reconstructing American Legal Realism & Rethinking Private Law Theory (Oxford University Press, 2013), The Choice Theory of Contracts (Cambridge University Press, 2017) (with Michael A. Heller), A Liberal Theory of Property (Cambridge University Press, 2021), and Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law (Oxford University Press, 2024) (with Avihay Dorfman) . He edited six books, including Properties of Property (Wolters Kluwer, 2012) (with Gregory S. Alexander) and Research Handbook on Private Law Theory (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2020) (with Benjamin Zipursky). Dagan’s latest book, Advanced Introduction to Private Law Theory, 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.
Education
LL.B., Tel-Aviv University Faculty of Law (1988)
LL.M., Yale Law School (1991)
J.S.D., Yale Law School (1993)
Hanoch Dagan is teaching the following course in Spring 2026:
• 215.9 sec. 001 - Legal Theory Seminar
Courses During Other Semesters
| Semester | Course Num | Course Title |  Teaching Evaluations | Fall 2026 | 215.9 sec. 1 | Legal Theory Seminar | Fall 2025 | 202F sec. 007 | Contracts | View Teaching Evaluation |
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Seven UC Berkeley Law Professors Awarded Faculty Chairs for ‘Exceptional Excellence in Teaching and Scholarship’
Professors Andrew D. Bradt, Hanoch Dagan, Stavros Gadinis, Katerina Linos, Saira Mohamed, Ayelet Shachar, and Amanda L. Tyler “enormously enrich Berkeley Law,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says.
Center Hosts Powerhouse Conference
UC Berkeley Law’s Center for Private Law Theory recently hosted the North American Workshop on Private Law Theory for the first time, welcoming a stellar group of scholars from around the world to discuss research works in progress.
Year in Review: The Stories That Made 2024 Memorable and Meaningful for UC Berkeley Law
From a Supreme Court justice’s visit and an innovative leadership initiative to impactful pro bono work and influential AI guidance, the school’s commitment to excellence, community, and public mission was on full display.
Hanoch Dagan’s ‘Relational Justice’ Book Drawing Rave Reviews
Co-authored with Avihay Dorfman, Relational Justice: A Theory of Private Law argues that private law should, and to a significant degree already does, abide by two fundamental commitments: reciprocal respect for self-determination and substantive equality.
Inaugural Contract Theory Workshop Hosts ‘Dream Team’ of International Scholars
The new Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory event drew scholars from across the globe for a two-day event discussing scholarly works in progress.
Greatest Hits: A Dozen Stories From 2023 That Reflect Berkeley Law’s Impact
From helping to write a tribe’s constitution to providing free training worldwide on digital investigations of human rights violations to propelling crypto industry reform, the school had quite a year.
‘The Leading Light’: Professor Hanoch Dagan Launches Berkeley Center for Private Law Theory
A world-renowned scholar, Dagan will guide the center’s work investigating how we define our property, contract, and tort rights — and how that defines us as a society.
Sterling Scholars: Eight New Professors Further Bolster Our World-Class Faculty
“The quality of any educational institution is largely determined by the quality of its faculty and we simply could not have had a better year in our hiring,” Dean Erwin Chemerinsky says.