Ya’ara Mordecai is a J.S.D. candidate at Yale Law School, where she earned 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 for Outstanding Students from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem (Summa Cum Laude).
Upon graduation, she clerked for the Deputy Chief Justice of the Israeli Supreme Court and worked as a lawyer at the Justice Ministry International Law Department. In addition, she served as the Associate Editor of the Israel Law Review, held teaching and research assistant positions, and worked at the U.N. Human Rights Committee as part of her research assistance to the Chair.
Ya’ara accrued 7 years of clinical work as a student advocate and project director specializing in international human rights and minorities' rights, gained at both Yale Law School and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Her legal expertise in human rights was further enriched through her work as a Lloyd Cutler International Law Fellow and a Kirby Simon Human Rights Fellow. Additionally, Ya'ara has devoted 5 years to coaching student teams for the International Jean Pictet Moot Court Competition.
Her dissertation explores the intersection of poverty and crime, with a particular emphasis on evaluating alternative enforcement approaches to traditional criminal methods. Her academic interests include criminal law, critical legal theory, international human rights law, international humanitarian law, comparative law and tort law.
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
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