Middle East and North Africa

Two years into President Biden’s term—and 20 years since the mission to topple Saddam Hussein began—there’s no driver behind the wheel of the United States’s Iraq policy.

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.

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.

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?