Research Bio

Hanoch Dagan is the Elizabeth J. Boalt Distinguished Professor of law at Berkeley 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 130 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 eight 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 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 book, 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 next book, Advanced Introduction to Private Law Theory, is forthcoming with Edward Elgar.
 

Research Expertise and Interest

contract and commercial law, jurisprudence, property