Ziv Bohrer

Ziv Bohrer (Hebrew: זיו בורר; born 1980) is an Israeli jurist and researcher who specializes in public and criminal international law, as well as international humanitarian law. Bohrer is a senior lecturer at the Faculty of Law at Bar-Ilan University in Ramat Gan^[1] and a member of the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies.^[2]

Bohrer completed his bachelor's degree in law and psychology at the University of Haifa in 2002. In 2007, he completed his master's degree in law there, and in 2011 he received his doctorate in law from Tel Aviv University, where his doctoral thesis dealt with The justification defense based on obedience to orders in state criminal law and international law^[a].^[1]

Between 2002–2006, he served in the Military Advocate General (MAG Corps'). In his last position in the unit, he served as the legal advisor to the Center for Employment of Civilian IDF Employees. In 2005, he received a certificate of excellence from the unit.^[1]

Since 2011, he has served as a visiting researcher at several research institutes and academic institutions, including the law faculties at the University of Michigan in the United States (2011–2012) and at University of Cambridge in the United Kingdom (2017), and at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law in Heidelberg, Germany (2019–2020).^[1]

Between 2012–2013, he served as a research fellow at the Sacher Institute at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.^[1]

In 2015, he served as a visiting lecturer at the law faculty at the University of Georgia.^[1]

In 2020, he published two books on international criminal law: The justification defense based on obedience to orders and manifestly illegal orders: The existing and appropriate law in Israeli law^[b] published by the Israel Defense Forces' publication Maarachot, and Law applicable to armed conflict together with Helen Duffy and Janina Dill, published by Cambridge University Press.^[1]

• Bohrer, Ziv (2014). Lawyers in Warfare: Who Needs Them? (Report). Institute for National Security Studies. pp. 53–66. JSTOR resrep08957.7.
• Bohrer, Ziv (2016). "International Criminal Law's Millennium of Forgotten History". Law and History Review. 34 (2): 393–485. doi:10.1017/S073824801600002X. ISSN 0738-2480. JSTOR 24771456.
• Bohrer, Ziv (2018-12-20), "'Jolly Roger' (Pirate Flag)", International Law's Objects, Oxford University Press, pp. 259–271, doi:10.1093/oso/9780198798200.003.0022, ISBN 978-0-19-879820-0, retrieved 2025-09-01
• Bohrer, Ziv; Pirker, Benedikt (2022-12-05). "World War I: A Phoenix Moment in the History of International Criminal Tribunals". European Journal of International Law. 33 (3): 851–887. doi:10.1093/ejil/chac045. ISSN 0938-5428.
• Bohrer, Ziv (2023-08-02). "Nuremberg and Grotius's Scholarship as Non-Grotian Moments: On Novelty-Bolstering in International Law". Grotiana. 44 (1): 30–64. doi:10.1163/18760759-20230008. ISSN 0167-3831.
• Orbach, Danny; Bohrer, Ziv (November 2023). ""Let the Commander Respond": The Paradox of Obedience in the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces". Law and History Review. 41 (4): 817–839. doi:10.1017/S0738248023000391. ISSN 0738-2480.
• Orbach, Danny; Bohrer, Ziv (2025-08-04). "Atrocity and reciprocity during the Boxer War (1900–1901): Socio-legal perspectives". Modern Asian Studies: 1–52. doi:10.1017/S0026749X2500006X. ISSN 0026-749X.