The annual Sacher lecture in memory of John Sacher was held on November 20, 2018. This series of lectures, started last year, brings to the Faculty of Law a leading scholar from abroad to a public lecture as well as some additional meetings with Faculty members and graduate students. It is an initiative of the Sacher Institute together with the Dean of the Faculty. The series is named after John Sacher, the grandson of Harry Sacher and son of Michael Sacher, whom the Institute is named after. John Sacher, who passed away in 2016, kept close relations with the Institute, the Faculty and the Hebrew University as a whole for many years, including as Chairman of the British Friends of the Hebrew University as well as a member of the University’s Executive Committee. We are grateful for his many contributions to the Institute and the University.
Our guest this year was Prof. Mary Anne Case from the University of Chicago, a leading world expert in family law, gender, history of feminism and freedom of religion. Her main lecture was on the topic: “How are Marriages Like Corporations?”. Relying on theories from economic analysis of law and corporate law, Prof. Case examined the ways in which the institution of marriage can be seen as an efficient legal tool much like a corporation. This analysis was then deployed to shed light on developments regarding the regulation of marriage over the past few decades, including by comparison between the laws in different countries.