Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2021
Abstract
Rabbi Norman Lamm’s 1956 article, “The Fifth Amendment and Its Equivalent in the Halakha,” provides important lessons for scholarship in both Jewish and American law. Sixty-five years after it was published, the article remains, in many ways, a model for interdisciplinary and comparative study of Jewish law, drawing upon sources in the Jewish legal tradition, American legal history, and modern psychology. In so doing, the article proves faithful to each discipline on its own terms, producing insights that illuminate all three disciplines while respecting the internal logic within each one. In addition to many other distinctions, since its initial publication, R. Lamm’s article has received the attention of scholars, has been republished, and has been cited in several judicial opinions—among them, two United States Supreme Court opinions, including the landmark Miranda v. Arizona. As such, the article stands as a prime illustration of the potential promise of exploring Jewish law through the prism of modern thought and applying Jewish legal principles to contemporary issues.
Recommended Citation
Samuel J. Levine, Rabbi Lamm, the Fifth Amendment, and Comparative Jewish Law, 53 TRADITION 146 (2021).
Source Publication
Tradition: Rabbinical Council of America
Included in
Criminal Procedure Commons, Law and Philosophy Commons, Law and Politics Commons, Law and Psychology Commons, Law and Society Commons, Legal History Commons, Religion Law Commons, Supreme Court of the United States Commons