Boundaries of loyalty : testimony against fellow Jews in non-Jewish courts / Saul J. Berman.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Berman, Saul J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Informers (Jewish law).

Witnesses (Jewish law).

Conflict of laws (Jewish law).

Criminal jurisdiction.

Legal polycentricity.

Physical Description:

xiii, 239 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, 2016.

Summary:

Talmudic legislation prescribed penalty for a Jew to testify in a non-Jewish court, against a fellow Jew, to benefit a gentile - for breach of a duty of loyalty to a fellow Jew. Through close textual analysis, Saul Berman explores how Jewish jurists responded when this virtue of loyalty conflicted with values such as Justice, avoidance of desecration of God's Name, deterrence of crime, defence of self, protection of Jewish community, and the duty to adhere to Law of the Land. Essential for scholars and graduate students in Talmud, Jewish law and comparative law, this key volume details the nature of these loyalties as values within the Jewish legal system, and how the resolution of these conflicts was handled. Berman additionally explores why this issue has intensified in contemporary times and how the related area of 'Mesirah' has wrongfully come to be prominently associated with this law regulating testimony.

Contents:

The use of non-Jewish courts : the Tannaitic period

Legislative constraint on testimony : the Amoraic period

Rejected rationales of testimonial restriction : the Gaonic period into the period of the Rishonim

Creation of a duty to testify against fellow Jews in non-Jewish courts in the period of the Rishonim : i.e. under what circumstances could testimony in an honest non-Jewish court be required by Jewish law (and testimony then be permissible even in corrupt non-Jewish courts)?

The tension between responsa and codification : not every good ruling makes a good rule Maharam Mintz, Rabbi Joseph Caro and Rabbi Moshe Isserlis

Further expansion of the duty to testify against fellow Jews in non-Jewish courts in the period of the Acharonim : R. Yaacov Emden

Contemporary attempts to revert to the original law of Rava : expanding the boundaries of loyalty

Conclusion : reflections on loyalty and law.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781107090651

1107090652

OCLC:

951760391