The research on the legal profession also addresses its outcomes and the work of the judiciary – that is, judicial case law, and particularly its publication and dissemination. This body of research relies on empirical and historical research methods. One study, in collaboration with Prof. Rina Bogoch and Prof. Halperin-Kaddari, focuses on Family Court rulings in the era of digitized databases. The questions raised by this issue include, among others, transparency, the flow of knowledge and information in the context of common law, and questions about law and technology, which to a large extent relate to STS (that is, how technology (from printing to digitized databases) assists in enabling or preventing the dissemination of legal knowledge). This study, too, deals with the legal profession and the work of lawyers and judges, as well as the question of interests in publishing or not publishing judicial outcomes. It also addresses gender contexts and differences in the rulings of male and female judges, particularly in relation to publishing or not publishing their rulings. The study became a basic text in the area of family law. It is frequently cited and used as a basis for legislative proposals, and our hope is that it will help improve transparency with respect to Family Court rulings. These issues are linked with fundamental historical questions about the essence of common law and Anglicization during Mandate era. This is another groundbreaking study (in collaboration), which sparked a discussion on a previously neglected issue: closed-door deliberations regarding an entire body of law within a judicial system based on precedent.

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Rina Bogoch, Halperin-Kaddari R., Katvan E., (2011) Family Law in the Age of Computerized Databases: The Impact of Legal Databases on the Practice of Family Law in Israel, Iyuney Mishpat (Tel-Aviv University Law Journal) 34, 603-637 (in Hebrew).

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