Prof. Oren Gazal-Ayal was, until recently, the Dean of the Faculty of Law and the director of the Center for the Study of Crime, Law and Society, and is currently the Vice President and Dean for Research and Development. He is an expert in criminal law and procedure, sentencing law, and law and economics at the University of Haifa. He is regularly published in leading journals, including Duke Law Journal, The Journal of Law & Economics, The Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Law & Social Inquiry, and all leading Israeli legal journals. His papers are frequently cited in decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court.

Prizes and Grants: He has been awarded several prizes for his research, including the Minister of Public Security Prize (twice: 2002, 2008), the Dusty and Ettie Miller Prize for Outstanding Young Scholar (2008), the Cegla Prize  (2008), the Fatal Prize for excellence in research (2016), The Israeli Institute of Practical Criminal Law Prize for Outstanding Researcher in the Field of Criminal Law (2022) and the Israel Criminal Law Association Annual Prize for the Best Article (2022).  Lately, he has won three additional prestigious prizes: the Zeltner Prize for Senior Researcher (2023) awarded by the Tel Aviv University, the Cheshin Prize for Academic Excellence in Legal Research (2023) awarded by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, and the Gorni Prize for extraordinary achievement in the field of public law (2024). He has also received several prestigious and competitive research grants from, among others, the Israel Science Foundation (ISF, four times) and the German Israeli Foundation (GIF). 

Visiting Positions and Membership in Association and Academies of Sciences: Gazal-Ayal has held numerous visiting positions at prestigious institutions worldwide. Most recently, he has been a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg (2024) and Oxford University’s All Souls College (2023-4). Previously, he was a visiting professor at Oxford University’s Worcester College as a Massada Fellow (2019). His earlier visiting positions include Aix-Marseilles University (Erasmus Mundus Fellowship, 2008), the Max Planck Institute in Freiburg (2007), Michigan Law School (Fulbright Fellowship, 2004-5), Connecticut Law School (2004), and NYU Law School (1999-2000). He has also served in leadership roles, including as president of the Israeli Law and Economics Association (2009-2010), and has been a member of academic bodies such as the Israel Young Academy (2014-2019) and the Global Young Academy (2009-2014).

Public Service and Legal Advisory Roles: He serves as the vice-chair of the Public Committee for the Prevention of False Convictions (headed by the former Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger) and the Advisory Committee to the Minister of Justice for Criminal Procedure and Evidence Law. Previously, he served on numerous other public committees. He chaired the committee to examine the enforcement of drug offenses in the IDF and the committee to examine the treatment of unauthorized absence from service. Additionally, he served in the Public Committee for the Examination of Punishment and Treatment of Convicted Offenders (the Dorner Committee), the Committee for Alternatives to Incarceration, the Academic Advisory Forum to the Inspector General of the Israeli Police, and the Academic Advisory Forum for the Israel Prison Authority. In addition, he has held other public advisory positions, such as advising the Knesset, the Attorney General, and the Military Advocate General. He initiated a reform for alternatives to criminal proceedings, which was subsequently legislated by the Israeli parliament (the Knesset) in 2012.