Tikvah Scholar
Academic Year 2011-2012
Joshua M. Drapekin
Joshua M. Drapekin is a J.D. student at NYU School of Law. He completed his undergraduate study in Middle Eastern and South Asian Studies and Hebrew at Emory University as a Woodruff Scholar. He worked as a research assistant and general intern for Dr. Kenneth W. Stein at the Institute for the Study of Modern Israel, where his research focused primarily on Jimmy Carter’s presidential and post-presidential activities relating to the Middle East. His previous positions include: Editorial Contributor for Emory University’s student newspaper, The Emory Wheel; Shap/Shapiro Summer Intern in the Marketing and Communications at Anti-Defamation League International Headquarters in New York City; 2007 Meyer & Marcelle Kranzberg ADL Scholarship Awardee.
Research
As a Tikvah Scholar, I would like to examine the interaction between globalization and law, more specifically, how to respond to a growing need for individuals able to reconcile the institutional differences between sovereign nations as well as independent, multinational bodies. As I see it, legal systems are more than a body of legislation and regulation—they are the codification of social values and cultural customs. Thus, a country’s laws can serve as a window unto its people and knowledge of them can empower one to better navigate our paradigm. With a legal education, I can build upon my experiences to further develop my knowledge of the interaction between globalization and law.
The Supreme Court of Israel, as a part of a comparatively young State, has had the opportunity to adjudicate only a relatively small number of matters; since common law systems rely upon precedence for both consistency and insight, this is a problem. Therefore, the Supreme Court of Israel often utilizes foreign precedents: American, Commonwealth and European. Many of these same nations, however, have yet to determine the role of foreign judicial rulings in their own systems. For example, on the 13th of Janurary 2005 in Washington, D.C. SCOTUS Justices Scalia and Breyer debated this very question and failed to come to any consensus.
I am, tentatively, interested in exploring this issue in the general and, more specifically, if the use of Biblical allusions and Israeli precedents by foreign courts can be used to defend the State of Israel against claims of Apartheid and other human rights violations.
