CURRICULUM VITAE

 

1. Personal Details

 

Permanent Home Address: 32A Gordon St. Giva’ataim 5322703, Israel.

Office Telephone Number: –

Cellular Phone: 0507-505059

Electronic Address: [email protected]

 

2. Higher Education

 

                                                                                                                                                             Undergraduate and Graduate Studies

 

Year of Approval of Degree	Degree	Name of Institution and Department	Period of Study
2010	LL.B.	Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University	2006 – 2010
2010	B.A (Psych.)	Faculty of Social Sciences, Tel-Aviv University	2006 – 2009
2012	LL.M.	European Master in Law and Economics programme (EMLE)	2011 – 2012
2018	Ph.D. (Law)	Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University	2013 – 2018

 

B. Post-Doctoral Studies

  

Year of Completion	Degree	Name of Institution, Department and Host	Period of Study
		Sciences-Po Law School Mentor/advisor: Prof. Mikhail Xifaras	2017 – 2018
		Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, Tel Aviv University Mentor/advisor: Prof. Shai Danziger	2018 – 2019
		Federmann Cyber Security Research Center, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem	2019 – 2021
		The Law, Computer Science, and Digital Ethics Lab, Bar-Ilan University, Faculty of Law	2021 – 2024

 

3. Academic Ranks and Tenure in Institutes of Higher Education

 

Rank/Position	Name of Institution and Department	Dates
Lecturer	School of Law, Netanya Academic College	2024 – Present

 

4. Offices in Academic Administration

 

N/A

 

5. Scholarly Positions and Activities outside the Institution

 

Refereeing

Global Jurist (UK)

Memberships

2011 – The Israeli Bar Association

 

 

6. Participation in Scholarly Conferences

 

1. Active Participation

Conferences since 2010

Role	Subject of  Lecture/Discussion	Place of Conference	Name of Conference	Date
Oral presentation	Technology Obsolescence: Legal Discussion on Industrial Complexity	Hamburg University, Germany	Law and Economics Workshop	2013
Oral presentation	How Dangerous Do You Think it is? A Perception of Risk Approach to Negligence	Haifa University	The 6th Annual Bucerius Research Workshop	2013
Oral presentation	Regret in Contract Law	Tel-Aviv University	The 2nd Annual Conference of Israeli Young Scholars in Law	2014
Oral presentation	How Dangerous Do You Think it is? A Perception of Risk Approach to Negligence	Rome, Italy	The Italian Society of Law and Economics 10th Annual Conference	2014
Oral presentation	The Two Faces of Mistake: On Excuse and Invalidation in the Law of Mutual mistake	Tel-Aviv University	The 3rd Annual TAU Workshop for Junior Scholars in Law	2015
Oral presentation	A Law for Those who Care Less	Sciences Po Law School, France	4th Annual TAU Law–SPLS Workshop	2018
Oral presentation	Markets for Emotions and Emotions in Markets	Tel-Aviv University	Safra Center for Ethics Annual Meeting	2019
Oral presentation	A Law for Those who Care Less	Haifa University	Israeli Association for Private Law 9th Annual Meeting	2019
Oral presentation	A Law for Those who Care Less	Tel-Aviv University	European Association of Law and Economics (EALE) 36th Annual Conference	2019
Oral presentation	Emotion, Motivation, and the Limits of Contractual Liability: The Case of Regret	Jerusalem	Judges’ Seminar	2019
Oral presentation	When Contract’s Basic Assumptions Fail: From Rose 2d to COVID-19	SMU, Singapore (Online)	SMU Conference on Global Public-Private Law Approaches to the Covid-19 Pandemic	2020
Oral presentation	The Law of AI: a Renegotiation or a Reproduction	Hebrew University (Online)	Book Symposium on “The Reasonable Robot”	2021
Oral presentation	Theories of Assent and Theories of Consent in Contract Interpretation	UCL, UK (Online)	New Direction in Private law	2021
Oral presentation	P2B and the Missing Relational Dimensions of the DSA	Weizenbaum Institute (Online)	Percolating the DSA Package – Perspectives for a Digital Decade	2021
Oral presentation	Business Users of Digital Platform: The Contractual Lens	Ahva Academic College	Israeli Association for Private Law 12th Annual Meeting	2022
Oral presentation	The Value of Accuracy in Contract Interpretation	Bar-Ilan University	The 6th Annual Conference of the Israeli Forum for Contract Law	2022
Oral presentation	Business Users of Digital Platform: The Contractual Lens	Online	The Annual Israeli Intellectual Property Workshop	2022
Oral presentation	Access to Platform Data and the Right to Research	SMU, Singapore (online)	Data Rights and Private Law Roundtable	2022
Oral presentation	Robots in a Civilized Society: Should Robots Be Taught to Adhere to Social Norms?	Reichmann University	The Annual Conference of the Israeli Law and Society Association	2023
Oral presentation	Access to Platform Data and the Right to Research	Bar-Ilan University	Digital Governance and the Law in the Age of AI	2023
Oral presentation	Unlocking Platform Data for Research	Ascona, Switzerland	Mapping and Governing the Online World	2024
Oral presentation	The Opioid Crisis as Unjust Enrichment	Hebrew University Jerusalem	Just Lab Workshop	2025
Discussant	Trust, Good Faith, and Contractual Relations	Notre Dame University	Good Faith and Loyalty

 

1. Organization of Conferences or Sessions

Role	Subject of Conference/ Role at Conference/ Comments	Place of Conference	Name of Conference	Date
	Organizer (w/ Prof. Oren Perez, Dr Hanan Mandel) and chair of the conference	Bar-Ilan University; Ono Academic College	Smart Compliance Systems in the AI Era: Combining Criminal and Administrative Measures Workshop	2022
	Organizer	Bar-Ilan University	Roundtable: AI, Copyright and Fair-Use	2023
	Organizer (w/ Prof. Oren Perez, Prof.  Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Dr. Ayelet Sela) and chair of three session	Bar-Ilan University	Digital Governance and the Law in the Age of AI	2023

 

7. Invited Lectures\ Colloquium Talks

 

Invited lectures since 2013

Presentation/Comments	Name of Forum	Place of Lecture	Date
Robots in a Civilized Society: Should Robots Be Taught to Adhere to Social Norms?	Economic & Legal Challenges in the Advent of Smart Products, ZiF Research Group Closing Conference	Bielefeld University, Germany	2023
Business Users of Digital Platform: The Contractual Lens	Bar-Ilan University	The Law & Technology Workshop,	2022
A Law for Those who Care Less	Faculty Seminar	Zfat Law School	2019
What a Peppercorn Can Do: The Effect of Nominal Considerations on Perceived Attractiveness	PhD Workshop, Sciences Po Law School	Sciences Po Law School, France	2017
A Law for Those who Care Less	Safra Center for Ethics	Tel-Aviv University	2018

 

8. Research Grants

 

1. Grants Awarded

Year	Funded by/ Amount	Topic	Co-Researchers	Role in Research
2020	Volkswagen Stiftung Grant 150,000 Euro	Artificial Intelligence and the Society of the Future	Eric Hilgendorf, Sabine Köszegi, Klaus Schilling, Omri Rachum-Twaig	CI

 

1. Submission of Research Proposals – Not Funded

 

Score	Year	Funded by	Topic	Co-Researchers	Role in Research
11 (out of 15)	2023	Horizon	E-democracy in the age of generative AI	Bar Ilan University (Oren Perez, Ittai Bar-Siman-Tov, Ayelet Sella) coordinated a consortium of Oslo U, Rotterdam U, Ben-Gurion U, JAGIELLONSKI U, Make.Org, The Transatlantic Foundation	Co-PI

 

9. Teaching

a.      Courses Taught in Recent Years

Number of Students	Degree	Type of Course Lecture/Seminar/ Workshop/High Learn Course/ Introduction Course (Mandatory)	Name of Course	Year
11	LL.B.	Workshop	TAU Private Law Workshop	2025 – to date
129	LL.B.	Introduction Course (Mandatory)	Corporate Law	2024 – to date
23	LL.B.	Seminar	Law & AI	2024 – to date
15	LL.M.	Seminar	Law & Tech	2024 – to date
26	LL.B.	Seminar	Corporate Law	2024 – to date
35	LL.B.	Workshop	Excellence Program	2024 – to date
100 25 25	LL.B. LL.M. M.A.	Elective course	Law & Technology (Bar Ilan University + Netanya Academic College)	2023
25	LL.B.	Elective course for 3rd year undergraduate students	Law & Technology Workshop (Bar Ilan University)	2023
50	LL.B.	Mandatory course for 1st year undergraduate students	Contract Law (Tel Aviv-University)	2019 – 2020
25	LL.M.	Mandatory course for International LL.M. Students	Contemporary Legal Issues in Israel (Tel Aviv-University)	2019 – 2020

 

                                    

PUBLICATIONS

Ph.D. Dissertation

Faculty of Law, Tel-Aviv University, Israel, 2018. The subject: “The Right of Contractual Regret: A Psychological Perspective”. Supervisors: Professor Nili Cohen & Professor Roy Kreitner. 130,000 words.

 

Articles in Refereed Journals

Published

*1 Gilboa M, Kaplan Y, Somech O., The Opioid Crisis as Unjust Enrichment, 104 North Carolina L. Rev. (2026, forthcoming) (Ranking: A)

*2 Elkin-Koren N., Perel M., Somech O., Unlocking Platform Data for Research, 100 Indiana L.J. (2025, forthcoming). Equal Contribution. (Ranking: A)

*3 Somech O., Elkin-Koren N., Perel M., Digital Platforms’ Business Users: The Contractual Lens (2023) 47 Tel-Aviv U. L. Rev. 231-293 (Hebrew). Equal Contribution.

*4 Rachum-Twaig O., Somech O., The Law of AI: A Renegotiation or a Reproduction (2022) 25 Jerusalem Rev. Legal Stud. 1-17. Equal Contribution. Google Scholar citations: 3. Equal Contribution. (Ranking: B)

*5 Elkin-Koren N., Perel M., Somech O., P2B and the Missing Relational Dimensions of the DSA (2021) Internet Policy Rev. Equal Contribution.

*6 Dagan H., Somech O., When Contract’s Basic Assumptions Fail (2021) 34 Canadian J.L. & Juris 297-328. Equal Contribution. Google Scholar citations: 23. Equal Contribution. (Ranking: B)

*7 Somech O., Emotion, Motivation, and the Limits of Contractual Liability: The Case of Regret, (2020) L. Soc. & Culture 387-420 (Hebrew).

*8 Somech O., What A Peppercorn Can Do: The Effect of Considerations on the Subjective Attractiveness of Objects (2020) 88 Miss. L.J. 487 (Ranking: C)

*9 Rachum-Twaig O., Somech O., Breaking into an Empty House: A Theory of Remedies for CFAA Unauthorized Access to Non-Proprietary Information (2019) 82 Albany L. Rev 555-599. Equal Contribution. Google Scholar citations: 3. (Ranking: B)

*10 Somech O., The Uneasy Move from Autonomy to Alternatives: Self-Determination, Regret, and the Process of Autonomous Choice (2019) 20 Jerusalem Rev. Legal Stud. 133-147 (Ranking: B)

*11 Rachum-Twaig O., Somech O., the Right-Based View of the Cathedral: Liability Rules and Corrective Justice (2016) 2016 Pepperdine L. Rev. 74-113. Equal Contribution. Google Scholar citations: 4. Equal Contribution. (Ranking: B)

 

Articles or Chapters in Scientific Books (not conference proceedings)

Published

 

*1 Rachum-Twaig O., Somech O., Robots in a Civilized Society: Should Robots Be Taught to Adhere to Social Norms? in Woodrow Barfield et al (eds.) The Cambridge Handbook on Law, Policy, and Regulations for Human-Robot Interaction 532-553 (Cambridge University Press, 2024). Google Scholar citations: 1. Equal Contribution.

*2 Somech O., Theories of Assent and Theories of Consent in Contract Interpretation in Fabiana Bettini et al, (eds) New Direction in Privat Law Theory 79-111 (UCL Press, 2023)

*3 Elkin-Koren N., Perel M., Somech O., Access to Platform Data and the Right to Research in Jennie M. Paterson et al (eds.) Data Rights and Private Law 123-143 (Hart Publishing, 2023). Equal Contribution.

*4 Elkin-Koren N., Perel M., Somech O., A Non-Binary Approach to Platform-to-Business Transactions in Catalina et al (eds.) Radical Reforms 109-127 (Berlin, Verfassungsbooks, 2023).

*5 Rachum-Twaig O., Somech O., AI-Robots – Challenges in Applying Tort Liability in Zemer L. et al (eds) Emerging Technologies: Challenges in Israeli Law 1-17 (Nevo, 2021) (Hebrew). Equal Contribution.

Summary of my Activities and Future Plans

Current overview

My research focuses on legal, psychological, and social issues in contractual relations in general and in the technological context in particular. I use both theoretical analysis and empirical (quantitative) research methods, to explore the relation among human psychology, society, and the law of obligations.

I view my contribution to research as having two main themes. First, it explores how emotions, the primary motivators of planned behavior, affect and limit human decision–making and action. It shows that, though not unrelated, emotions drive action in context-sensitive ways that differ from rational (or reasonable) conceptions of judicial persons, and that law itself takes part of forming that context, that is, in determining individuals’ emotional reaction, motivation, and action. Accordingly, it argues that contract law and theory should and, to an extent, already does consider e-motivation in two related ways, namely, as an exogenous factor that both instigates and limits human behavior, and as an endogenous factor, which is partly determined by law, that effects the emotional response of its subjects. It further claims that, whether law ignores the impact of e-motivation or takes it into account, doing so has significant distributional and social implications.

Second, my research on contract and technology looks into the social and societal effects of emerging technologies, specifically digital-platforms and artificial intelligence. It explores how these new technologies shape society, from scientists and journalists’ ability to access data for research and accountability purposes, to their effect on the content and development of social norms, and to the structure and functioning of consumer markets. In all of these instances, the introduction of new technology threatens to undermine existing mechanism and institutions, often in subtle and hard-to-notice ways, that may be disadvantageous to society as a whole or to particular groups within society, such as low-paid workers and cultural entrepreneurs.

My academic career began in 2013 when I started my Ph.D. studies at the Tel-Aviv University faculty of law. Since then I have been a postdoctoral fellow at the Science-Po law school, the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, and the Federmann Cyber Security Research Center. In the three years before joining Netanya Academic College I was the lab manager of the Bar Ilan lab for Legal Data, AI & Ethics Lab.

Finally, my work has been cited in leading journals in North America, such as the Journal of Legal Studies, Iowa Law Review, Law & Social Inquiry, and Cornell Law Review.

Plans for the future

My plans are to deepen my research in the areas of contracts, technology, and psychology, exploring their effect on interpersonal and social relations.

In the coming years I intend to pursue research in several avenues. First, theoretical and empirical approaches to the study of platforms, such as contractual and technological barriers to access to platform data; and the privatization of access to common resources in general, where data serves as the latest example, one preceded by beaches, public lands, and justice itself.

Second, in the context of e-motivation, I intend to explore the market and distributional effect of emotions, including the distributional effects of caring, the guilt and shame most individuals but few firms experience when putting others at risk or frustrating their contractual expectations; firms use of their knowledge on consumers emotional responses to affect their purchasing decision and their legal and social responses to product failure; and the psychological effect of take-it-leave-it mass-market contract on consumers’ motivation and self-efficacy when they are provided with the ability to make meaningful choices in the negotiating stage.

Third, I will also to continue my research on the law of obligation, including on the interpretation of contracts and the use of gain-based remedies to address the social crises.

Finally, as research on human psychology often requires funding, I plan to continue submitting grant applications.