Professional Experience

University of Chicago

2024 - Leo and Eileen Herzel Distinguished Service Professor
2013-2023 Leo and Eileen Herzel Professor of Law
2011- Kearny Director, Coase-Sandor Institute for Law and Economics
2008- 2012 Frank and Bernice Greenberg Professor of Law

University of Michigan

2006-2008 Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law and Economics
2001-2006 Professor of Law and Economics
1999-2001 Assistant Professor of Law and Economics

Tel-Aviv University

1995-1998 Assistant Professor of Law and Economics

Education

1995 Harvard University, PhD, Economics
1999 Harvard University, S.J.D, Law
1991 Harvard University, LL.M, Law
1989 Hebrew University, B.A, Economics
1989 Hebrew University, LL.B, Law

Activities

2012-2023 Reporter, ALI Restatement of Law, Consumer Contracts (with Oren Bar-Gill and Florencia Marrota-Wurgler)
2016-2020 Columnist, Forbes.com
2008-2016 Editor, Journal of Legal Studies
2007-2008 Chair, Section on Contracts, Association of American Law Schools
2006 Visiting Professor, NYU School of Law (Fall Term)
2006-2009 Board Member, American Association of Law and Economics
2005 Visiting Professor, Harvard Law School (Winter Term)
2002-2003 Chair, Section on Law and Economics, Association of American Law Schools
2001-2002 Founding President, Israeli Law and Economics Association
1999-2008 Founding Director, Olin Center for Law and Economics, University of Michigan
1997-1999 Judicial Panel Member, Israeli Antitrust Court
1995-1998 Fellow, Israeli Democracy Institute
1989-1990 Law Clerk, Supreme Court of Israel, Justice Yaakov Maltz

Symposia

2017, 2019 Co-Organizer, Law and Big Data (with Florence G'sell)
2012-2018 Organizer, Summer Schools in Law and Economics
2012 Organizer, “European Contract law: A Law and Economics Perspective” Conference, Common Market Law Review
2012 Co-Organizer, “Regulatory Techniques in Consumer Protection” Conference, American Law Institute (with Oren Bar-Gill)
2010 Co-Organizer, “Licensing of Intellectual Property” Conference, University of Chicago Law Review (with Richard Epstein and Jonathan Masur)
2008 Co-organizer, “Fault in Contract Law” Conference, Michigan Law Review and Cambridge U. Press (with Ariel Porat)
2007 Organizer, “How Bad Are Mandatory Arbitration Terms in Contract” Symposium, Section on Contract, AALS Annual Meeting, Michigan J. Law Reform
2005 Organizer, “Boilerplate” Conference, Michigan Law Review and Cambridge U. Press
2004 Organizer, “Freedom from Contract” Conference, Wisconsin Law Review
1998 Organizer, Conference on the Economics of Contract Law (Tel-Aviv, 1998)

Books

Omri Ben-Shahar and Ariel Porat, Personalized Law: Different Rules for Different People (Oxford University Press 2021)
Omri Ben-Shahar and Carl E. Schneider, More Than You Wanted To Know: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure (Princeton University Press 2014; Paperback Edition 2016); Chinese Translation: “Too Far: The Failure of Mandated Disclosure” (Law China Press, 2015)
Omri Ben-Shahar and Ariel Porat, eds., Fault In American Contract Law (Cambridge University Press 2010)
Omri Ben-Shahar, ed., Boilerplate: Foundation of Market Contracts (Cambridge University Press 2007)

Research Articles

Privacy Protection, At What Cost? Exploring the Regulatory Resistance to Data Technology in Auto Insurance, 15 Journal of Legal Analysis 129 (2023)
Manipulation By Mislaid Priority, 52 Journal of Legal Studies 305(2023) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Nonparty Interests in Contrat Law, 171 University of Pennsylvania Law Review 1095 (2023) (with David Hoffman and Cathy Hwang)
An Information Cost Theory of Default Rules , 88 University of Chicago Law Review 581 (2021) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Personalized Elder Law, Annual Baum Lecture, University of Illinois, 28 Elder Law Journal 281 (2021)
Data Pollution, 11 Journal of Legal Analysis 104 (2019)
The American Law Institute’s Restatement of Consumer Contracts: Reporters’ Introduction, 15 European Review of Contract Law 91 (2019) (with Oren Bar-Gill and Florencia Marotta-Wurgler)
Personalizing Mandatory Rules in Contract Law, 86 University of Chicago Law Review 255 (2019) (with Ariel Porat)
The Restoration Remedy in Private Law, 118 Columbia Law Review 1901 (2018) (with Ariel Porat)
The Unfulfilled Promise of Mortgage Disclosures, in THE LAW AND ECONOMICS OF THE SPANISH MORTGAGE MARKET (Gomez & Ganuza, eds., 2018) (in Spanish)
Interpreting Contracts Via Surveys and Experiments, 92 New York University Law Review 1753 (2017) (with Lior Strahilevitz)
Simplification of Privacy Disclosures: An Experimental Study, 45 Journal of Legal Studies S41 (2016) (with Adam Chilton)
Contracting Over Privacy: An Introduction, 45 Journal of Legal Studies S1 (2016) (with Lior Strahilevitz)
Searching for Precedent: The Quantitative Approach to the Restatement of Consumer Contracts, University of Chicago Law Review (forthcoming, 2016) (with Oren Bar-Gill and Florencia Marrota-Wurgler)
The Paradox of Access Justice, And Its Application to Mandatory Arbitration, 83 University of Chicago Law Review 1755 (2016)
Optimal Default for Consumer Contracts, 45 Journal of Legal Studies S137 (2016) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
The Perverse Effects of Government-Subsidized Weather Insurance, 68 Stanford Law Review 571(2016) (with Kyle Logue) (abridged version reprinted in Regulation, Fall 2015)
Personalizing Negligence Law, 91 NYU Law Review 627 (2016) (with Ariel Porat)
Regulation of Food Safety Through Compulsory Insurance, 14:2 Law and Social Science 48 (2015) (in Chinese)
Coping with the Failure of Mandated Disclosure, Jerusalem Review of Legal Studies (2015) (with Carl Schneider)
The Futility of Cost Benefit Analysis in Financial Regulation, 43 Journal of Legal Studies s253 (2014) (with Carl Schneider)
Exit From Contract, 6(1) Journal of Legal Analysis 152 (2014) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Regulation through Boilerplate: An Apologia, 112 Michigan Law Review 883 (2014)
Reversible Rewards, 15 American Law and Economics Review 156 (2013) (with Anu Bradford)
Regulatory Techniques in the Common European Sales Law, 50 Common Market L. Rev. Special Issue 109 (2013) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Introduction: A law and economics approach to European contract law, 50 Common Market L. Rev. Special Issue 3 (2013)
Mandatory Arbitration and Distributive Equity: An Essay on Access-to-Justice, in REGULATORY COMPETITION IN CONTRACT LAW AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION (H. Eidenmuller, Ed., Hart Pub. 2013)
How Insurance Substitutes for Regulation, 36:1 Regulation 36 (Spring 2013) (with Kyle Logue)
Contract versus Property Remedies, 12 Academia Sinica Law Journal 1 (2013)
Outsourcing Regulation: How Insurance Reduces Moral Hazard, 111 Michigan Law Review 197 (2012) (with Kyle Logue)
Economic Analysis of Contract Law, in Economic Analysis of Law (U. Procaccia, ed. 2012) (with Yuval Procaccia, in Hebrew)
Fixing Unfair Contracts, 63 Stanford Law Review 869 (2011)
The Failure of Mandated Disclosure, 159 U. of Penn. L. Rev. 647 (2011) (with Carl Schneider)
The Right to Withdraw in Contract Law, 40 J. Legal Stud 115 (2011) (with Eric Posner)
Damages for Unlicensed Use, 78 U. of Chicago L. Rev. 7 (2011)
Efficient Enforcement in International Law, 12 Chicago J. Int'l Law 375 (2011)(with Anu Bradford)
One-Way Contracts: Consumer Protection Without Law, 6 European Rev. Contract Law 221 (2010)
Consumer Protection Without Law, 33(2) Regulation 26 (Summer, 2010)
Pre-Closing Liability, 77 U. of Chicago L. Rev. 977 (2010)
An Information Theory of Willful Breach, 107 Michigan L. Rev. (2009) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
The Myth of Opportunity to Read in Contract Law, 5 European Review of Contract Law 1 (2009)
A Bargaining Power Theory of Gap-Filling, 109 Columbia L. Rev. (2009)
The Prisoners’ (Plea Bargain) Dilemma, 1 Journal of Legal Analysis (2009), Reprinted in 33(1) Regulation 42 (Spring, 2010) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Partially Odious Debt? A Framework for Optimal Liability, 70 Journal of Law and Contemporary Problems 101 (2007) (with Mitu Gulati)
Against Irreparable Benefits, 116 Yale L.J. Pocket Part 381 (2007)
The( Legal) Pains of Vioxx, The Economist’s Voice, Vol. 3, Issue 6, Berkeley Economics Press (2006)
On the Stickiness of Default Rules, in Symposium on Default Rules, 33 Florida State Law Review 651 (2006) (with John Pottow)
More Options, Less Freedom: Review of Ian Ayres’ “Optional Law”, Journal of Economic Literature, Vol. XLIV, pp. 444-449. (2006)
Boilerplate and Economics Power in Auto Production Contracts, in Symposium on “Boilerplate: Foundations of Market Contracts,” 104 Michigan Law Review 953 (2006) (with James J. White)
Forward: Symposium on Boilerplate, 104 Michigan Law Review 821 (2006)
An Ex-Ante View of the Battle of the Forms: Inducing Parties to Draft Reasonable Terms, 25 International Rev. L. & Econ. 350 (2005)
The (Legal) Value of Chance: Distorted Measures for Recovery in Private Law, 7 American Law and Economics Review 484 (2005) (with Robert Mikos)
Legal Durability, 1 Review of Law and Economics, www.bepress.com/rle/vol1/iss1/art2 (2005)
Credible Coercion, 83 Texas Law Review 717 (2005) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
The Law of Duress and the Economics of Credible
Threats, 33 Journal of Legal Studies 391 (2004) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Contracts without Consent: Exploring a New Basis for Contractual Liability, 152 U. of Pennsylvania Law Review 1829 (2004) (A symposium on this article appeared in the same issue.)
Ascent of Contract versus Contract upon Assent: Addendum, 152 U.of Pennsylvania Law Review 1947 (2004)
Agreeing to Disagree: Filling Gaps in Deliberately Incomplete Contracts, in Symposium on Freedom from Contract, 2004 Wisconsin Law Review 389 (2004)
Freedom From Contract: Forward, 2004 Wisconsin Law Review 261 (2004)
Threatening an Irrational Breach of Contract, 11 Supreme Court Economic Review 143-170 (2004), reprinted in The Law and Economics of Irrational Behavior (F. Parisi, V. Smith, Eds., Stanford Univ. Press)
The Uneasy Case for Comparative Negligence, American Law and Economics Review, Vol. 5, 433-469 (2003) (with Oren Bar-Gill)
Precontractual Reliance, The Journal of Legal Studies, Vol 30, 423-457 (2001) (with Lucian Bebchuk).
The Secrecy Interest in Contract Law, Yale Law Journal, Vol. 109, 1885-1925 (2000) (with Lisa Bernstein) (excerpted in various Contracts case books, including SUMMERS AND HILLMAN, CONTRACTS AND RELATED OBLIGATION, 4th Ed, 2001).
Causation and Foreseeability, in Encyclopedia of Law and Economics (Bouckaert and DeGeest, Eds., Elgar Pub., 2000).
The Tentative Case against Flexibility in Commercial Law, University of Chicago Law Review, Vol. 66, pp. 781-820 (1999) (reviewed by Ian Ayres, Eroding Entitlements as Litigation Commitment, 66 University of Chicago Law Review 836).
The Erosion of Rights By Past Breach, American Law and Economics Review, Vol. 1, 190-238 (1999)
Criminal Attempts, in The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics and the Law (P. Newman, Ed.,1998).
Should Products Liability Be Based on Hindsight?, The Journal of Law, Economics, and Organization, Vol. 14, pp. 325-357 (1998).
The Regulation of the Licensing of Professional Occupations, The Economic Quarterly, Vol. 1998(1), pp. 18-27 (in Hebrew, 1998).
Playing Without a Rulebook: Optimal Sanctions When Individual Learn the Penalty Only By Committing the Crime, International Review of Law and Economics, Vol. 17, pp. 409-421 (1997).
The Economics of the Law of Criminal Attempts: a Victim-Centered Perspective, U.of Pennsylvania Law Review, Vol. 145, pp., 299-351 (1996) (with Alon Harel) (excerpted in KAPLAN, WEISBERG & BINDER, CRIMINAL LAW: CASES AND MATERIALS, 5th ed. 2004).
"Blaming the Victim": Optimal Incentives for Private Precautions Against Crime, Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Vol. 11, pp. 434- 455 (1995) (with Alon Harel).
Informed Courts, Uninformed Individual and the Economics of Judicial Hindsight, Journal of Institutional and Theoretical Economics, Vol. 151, pp. 613-630 (1995).

Teaching Experience

Contract Law
Trademarks and Unfair Competition Law
Law and Artificial Intelligence
Consumer Law
Commercial Transactions
Insurance Law
Electronic Commerce
Law and Economics (Law School and Economics Department)
The Law and Economics of Intellectual Property
Game Theory and The Law
Food Law

Download PDF