LAPIDOT, RUTH

LAPIDOT, RUTH (1930– ), Israeli jurist. Lapidot was born in Germany and immigrated to Israel in 1938 with her family. In 1947 she moved to Paris to study piano but came back a year later to serve in the army, where she was in the Medical Corps. She studied law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem from 1949 to 1953 and clerked in the Supreme Court. In 1954–56 she studied international public law in Paris, completing her Ph.D. there. From 1956 to 2001 she was a member of the Faculty of Law at the Hebrew University, where she became a full professor in 1980. Her fields of interest were international law, maritime law, and the Arab-Israeli conflict. In addition to her academic career she held a number of international posts, such as member of the Israeli delegation to the un (1976), and participated in the Humanitarian Law Conference (1977) and the Red Cross Conference (1981), in which she utilized her legal knowledge to influence decisions regarding Israel. Lapidot served as legal advisor to the Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1979 to 1981, assisting the Israeli delegation during the peace process with Egypt (1979) as well as advising the government on Palestinian autonomy under the Camp David Agreement and on the establishment of an international observer force in Sinai and the Southern Negev. From 1986 to 1988 she represented Israel in the Taba border dispute with Egypt. Since 1989 she has been a member of the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague. In 1999 she advised the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. In 2006 she received the Israel Prize in law. She published nine books and over 90 articles on legal subjects.

[Shaked Gilboa (2^nd ed.)]