Ya’ara Mordecai is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she received her LL.M. degree in 2023 as an E. David Fischman Scholar. She also holds an LL.M. in Public and International Law, an LL.B., and a B.A. in the “Amirim” Interdisciplinary Honors Program in the Humanities from The Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Summa Cum Laude).
Following her studies, Ya’ara clerked for the Deputy Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court and served as a lawyer in the International Law Department of the Israeli Ministry of Justice. Her international legal experience further includes work with the United Nations Human Rights Committee, the International Court of Justice, the European Court of Human Rights, and Doughty Street chambers in London. She has also held editorial, research, and teaching positions both in Israel and at Yale, including editorial roles on four law journals.
Ya’ara’s scholarship focuses on criminal law, empirical legal studies, international criminal law, and international human rights law. Her work has been published and is forthcoming in leading academic journals, including the Vanderbilt Journal of Transnational Law and the Yale Journal of Law & the Humanities. Her dissertation explores the intersection of poverty and crime, with a particular emphasis on evaluating alternative enforcement approaches to traditional criminal methods.
In addition to her research, Ya’ara has extensive teaching and mentoring experience developed over many years at Yale and elsewhere. She has taught courses spanning criminal law, international law, legal writing, and human rights, and has also supervised and mentored students in clinical and research settings. Her experience includes years of work in human rights clinics and advocacy projects, focusing particularly on international human rights and minority rights. In parallel, she has coached students for the International Jean Pictet Competition, one of the leading international law moot court competitions in the world.
Doctoral Committee
Gideon D. Yaffe (chair), Tom R. Tyler (reader), and James Q. Whitman (reader).
Education
LL.M., Yale Law School, 2023
LL.M., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2021
LL.B., The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2020
B.A. (Amirim Honors Program in the Humanities), The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2020
Contact Information