Eugene Kontorovich

Prof. Eugene Kontorovich teaches at Northwestern University School of Law, and is a senior researcher at the Kohelet Policy Forum in Jerusalem. He specializes in constitutional and international law. He is a leading expert on the legal issues in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and has advised top officials and government departments in both the US and Israel. He is widely cited and published in popular media, such as New York Times, Wall Street Journal, NPR, AP, Reuters, Commentary, Haaretz, and more. His scholarship has been cited in pathbreaking international law cases around the world. He attended college, law school, and taught at the University of Chicago, and clerked for Judge Richard Posner. Among his professional honors are a membership at the Institute for Advanced Studies in Princeton, NJ, and the Bator Award from the Federalist Society.

 MILORAD DODIK, president of the Republika of Srpska, addresses his supporters in Banja Luka, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in February. For Israelis, the strange story of Bosnia’s political turmoil should highlight the vast hypocrisy of European states, says the writer.

Illegitimate lawfare: Bosnia uses Israel as a battleground - opinion

 THE INTERNATIONAL Criminal Court in The Hague.

Arguments about judicial reform, ICC are legally baseless - opinion

 JUSTICE MINISTER Gideon Sa’ar confers with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett in the Knesset. Sa’ar decided to defer Israel’s joining the Istanbul Convention.

Why Israel shouldn't join the Istanbul Convention - opinion


100 years since San Remo, when Israel became a sovereignty

In San Remo, the League of Nations decided to turn much of the former Ottoman Empire into new nation-states: Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Jordan all emerged from this process, along with Israel.

A MILITARY parade for Independence Day held in Israel during the early 1970s.

Trump is keeping the promise made at San Remo in 1920. Why?

Why the conclusions of a 1978 US State Department memorandum have been repudiated.

A failed memo

Basic truths about the Basic Law

Israel properly does not compare itself to neighboring regimes.

Druze leaders partake in the protest against the Nation-State Law in Tel Aviv, August 2018

Is it wrong to critique decisions by the Israel Supreme Court?

Nowhere is criticism of the court more warranted than in the gas decision. Nothing in Israeli law bars such long-term commercial arrangements.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addresses the High Court on the gas deal

Sweden's unprincipled stance on recognition

Sweden’s surprise announcement that it will recognize a “Palestinian state” contradicts basic tenants of its foreign policy.

Flag of Sweden

New EU/Morocco fisheries deal and its implications for Israel

EU has been under strong pressure to sign the deal because of Spanish and French interests in the fish in West Bank.

Tilapia dead fish 390

How the EU directly funds settlements in occupied territory

The EU knowingly and purposefully provides substantial direct financial assistance to settlements in occupied territory – in Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, that is.

Nicosia in Turk-occupied Cyprus 370

Why ‘Jerusalem, Israel’ can’t be on US passports

There is no serious question that Jerusalem is as much part of Israel as Ashkelon or Beersheba.

US passport 311

UN vote: From ‘occupation’ to border dispute

If Israel was what it is often made out to be – a brutal occupier imposing its rule on others – how is it that the Palestinians managed to establish all the institutions of a state?

PA President Abbas and UN Secretary-General Ban in New York

Does the new anti-boycott law harm free speech?

Today’s champions of free speech are yesterday’s censors.

Peace Now boycott law_311