In this volume of collected papers, acknowledged authorities in Jewish Studies mark the milestones in the development of the Jewish religion from ancient times up to the present. They also take full account of the interactions between Judaism and its ancient and Christian environment. The renowned Viennese scholar Günter Stemberger is honoured with this festschrift on the occasion of his 65th birthday.

The articles in this volume were originally published in Hebrew in Shenaton Hamishpat Haivri and address Jewish law, both in its own context and in the context of contemporary jurisprudence. Contributions range from discussion of the rabbincal court to the doctrine of binding precedent, and from the basis of judicial authority to the legal defence

The book shows that self-help in commercial law is a fast, inexpensive and efficient alternative to court enforcement. Self-help remedies and private debt collection are largely but not exclusively features of common law jurisdictions, since remnants of private enforcement can still be found in contract law in civilian systems. The book argues that – despite their usefulness – self-help and private debt collection entail significant risks, especially for consumer debtors. This means that private enforcement needs to be accompanied by the introduction of tailor-made consumer-debtor protection regulation. Specific attention is given to factoring, which functions in many instances as a form of pseudo-private debt collection and which has been exploited to bypass sector-specific consumer protection regulations.

Proceedings of Jewish Law Association international colloquium held at Boston in 2004. The 15 papers range cover historical, comparative, philosophical and dogmatic aspects of the history of Jewish law. Topics include biblical law, divine justice (Warhaftig), denominational differences (Dorff), military ethics (Broyde), sexual offences (Burnside), Yael wife of Hever (Elgavish), Traditio Clavium and Roman law (Kleinman), Alfasi, Sugyan and Authority (Levy), Role of the judge (Rabinovich), Contract law including good faith (Resnicoff), Commercial contracts and cancellation of contracts (Rivlin), Ritual and culture (Rosenak), Rodef and self-defence in the Talmud (Shapira), Organ sales in Jewish and Israeli law (Wygoda), birth of Jesus - spiritus ex machina (Zaas).