Class Actions- Dr. Shay N. Lavie

Class actions are a powerful tool to enforce legal entitlements. They enable a large group of plaintiffs, most of them unidentified, to jointly sue a single defendant. They eliminate the gaps between small plaintiffs and large defendants, and enable the vindication of rights otherwise not worth pursuing. Nevertheless, the use of class actions raises numerous challenges. How can one overcome the conflicts between the individual plaintiffs’ incentives and the class’s interests? How can the plaintiffs prove, in an aggregate manner, their individual cases? Which mechanisms align the interests of the class attorney with the class’s? How can defendants avoid frivolous class actions? Should there be class actions against the government? Are there any alternative procedural mechanisms to bridge the litigation gaps between defendants and plaintiffs? The Israeli legislature enacted the class action statute less than a decade ago; but these and similar questions have remained unsettled. The course will discuss these issues, looking to the parallel procedural designs in the U.S.