Omer Ein-Habar
S.J.D. Candidate
Graduate Fellow
LL.M. Advisor
oeinhabar@sjd.law.harvard.edu
Dissertation
The Law and Political Economy of Physical Infrastructure
Physical space and infrastructure are legally constructed through political decision-making. This legal construction, therefore, creates a space modeled on specific political visions. For instance, the Interstate Highway System, funded by the federal government in midcentury America, was built in areas where predominantly marginalized communities lived, resulting in their displacement. The harms caused by these urban highways were entrenched in concrete and still persist today, for example in the form of mobility and wealth gaps. Recognizing the influential role of space and its affordances in shaping society, ongoing discussions are taking place among legislators, regulators, and academics regarding the imperative to equitably empower marginalized communities through investment in physical infrastructure.
In my research, I explore how contemporary infrastructure projects serve as a means to decentralize legal, political, and economic power. Specifically, I investigate the implications of legally implementing significant social promises through state and local governments, and what these promises entail in a reality of proliferating political polarization. I plan to map the diverse manifestations of this fundamental tension, with a particular focus on water infrastructure as a starting point for exploring broader questions of infrastructural exclusion, commodification, and decentralization.
Fields of Research and Supervisors
- Law and Political Economy with Professor Yochai Benkler, Harvard Law School, Principal Faculty Supervisor
- Land Use and State and Local Government with Professor Maureen E. Brady, Harvard Law School
- Critical Legal Geography and Social Change with Professor Lucie E. White, Harvard Law School
- Water Law with Professor James Salzman, UCLA School of Law
Additional Research Interests
- Property Law
- Legislation and Regulation
- Federalism
- Networks, Platforms, and Utilities
Education
- Harvard Law School, S.J.D. Candidate 2023 – Present
- Harvard Law School, LL.M. Program 2022-2023 (requirements fulfilled, degree waived)
- Tel Aviv University, LL.B. 2020
Representative Publications
Omer Ein Habar, Aya Omassi, Adan Tatour, The Moral Commitment of Law Students and Law Reviews, 43(2) TAU. L. REV. 287 (2020) (Heb.).
Additional Information
Languages: English, Hebrew
Last Updated: July 24, 2023