Israeli Supreme Court
The Israeli President’s Plan to End the Constitutional Crisis
What does it say? Why has it been rejected by the government?
Amichai Cohen teaches international law and national security law at the Ono Academic College, Israel, where he previously served as the dean of the Faculty of Law. He is also a senior fellow at the Israel Democracy Institute. Cohen received his LL.B. degree from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and his LL.M. and J.S.D. degrees from Yale Law School.
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What does it say? Why has it been rejected by the government?
As the first draft laws making up the new Israeli government’s judicial reform start passing preliminary votes in the Knesset, Israel moves toward a constitutional showdown, in which the Supreme Court might have to strike down new laws that seek to remove its power to strike down unconstitutional legislation.
Under current Israeli administrative law, the Supreme Court may strike down patently unreasonable decisions of the executive branch that run contrary to human rights or good governance. The new government’s legal reforms seek to eliminate this legal doctrine or exclude from it elected officials
Government legal advisers play an important role in upholding the rule of law in Israel. Planned legal reforms, however, seek to allow the government to ignore their legal opinions and replace senior advisers with political appointees.
Part three in a series examining the sweeping legal and judicial reforms proposed by Israel's new government.
How did the Israeli Supreme Court use its authority after the constitutional revolution of the 1990s and what do current proposals to limit the power of the court to exercise judicial review over Knesset legislation look like?
With the swearing in of Israel’s new government, Israel’s legal system is facing proposals for sweeping reform that would change fundamental aspects of the courts’ ability to check and balance the Knesset’s legislative powers.