Meet: Avishalom Tor from the USA

The first visiting professorship for interdisciplinary jurisprudential research was awarded to Avishalom Tor of Notre Dame University, Indiana, USA.

Avishalom Tor is a professor of corporate and competition law from the prestigious Notre Dame University in Indiana, USA. Initially, he studied psychology at the University of Jerusalem where he experienced and observed first-hand the rise of the two men who were propelling the rise of behavioral science research, Amos Tversky (psychologist) and Daniel Kahneman (economist). He later studied law at Harvard University and is one of the leading figures in the “behavioral school” within this discipline, which has detected important deviations from the rational behavior of economic actors.

Already during his studies, Professor Tor understood how to bring together his acquired legal, economic and behavioral knowledge with his methodological skills in order to answer rising legal questions and achieve new research results. He received the prestigious John Olin Award for his work on the decision-making behavior of company founders.

Within the framework of his research, Professor Tor looked at the difficulties of applying behavioral science research to jurisprudence, dealt critically with “nudging” or liberal paternalism and came to surprising conclusions in his empirical investigation of the behavior of innocent convicted offenders in the plea bargaining process. He has also produced important new insights into understanding the competition for positions, rankings or medals. With his publications, Professor Tor has decisively influenced the behavioral reorientation of "Law and Economics."

Professor Tor will conduct an empirical research project at Bucerius Law School on consumer protection in German law and European law in collaboration with Professor Florian Faust. "The Rational Think Tank,” an established group of graduate and advanced students, will assist with the implementation of the project.

Advising Doctoral Students at Bucerius Law School

Avishalom Tor will also be available to Ph.D. students at Bucerius Law School for counseling sessions in corporate law, competition law, behavioral science and legal economics. All interested doctoral students can write to him with questions or arrange a personal meeting at Avishalom.Tor.3(at)nd.edu.

Author

Hans-Bernd Schäfer, Affiliate Professor

Hamburg