The Supreme Court consists of 15 judges appointed by the President of Israel, upon nomination by the Judicial Selection Committee. Once appointed, Judges serve until retirement at the age of 70 unless they resign or are removed from office. Yitzhak Amit became the acting President of the Supreme Court of Israel on 1 October 2024 after Vogelman stepped down, until a permanent president is appointed by the Judicial Selection Committee, which may take place sometime in November.[2]
The Court is situated in Jerusalem's Givat Ram governmental campus, about half a kilometer from Israel's legislature, the Knesset.
When ruling as the High Court of Justice (Hebrew: בֵּית מִשְׁפָּט גָּבוֹהַּ לְצֶדֶק, Beit Mishpat Gavo'ah LeTzedek; also known as its acronym Bagatz, בג"ץ), the court rules on the legality of decisions of State authorities: government decisions, those of local authorities and other bodies and persons performing public functions under the law, and direct challenges to the constitutionality of laws enacted by the Knesset. The court may review actions by state authorities outside of Israel.
By the principle of binding precedent (stare decisis), Supreme Court rulings are binding upon every other court, except itself. Over the years, it has ruled on numerous sensitive issues, some of which relate to the Israeli–Palestinian conflict, the rights of Arab citizens, and discrimination between Jewish groups in Israel.
On 24 July 2023, the Knesset passed a bill to prevent the Supreme Court from 'consider[ing] the reasonableness of a decision of the government, the prime minister, or any other minister',[3] which would diminish the power of the Supreme Court to check future actions of the government.[4] On 1 January 2024 the Supreme Court overturned the bill in an 8-7 decision.[5][6][7]
Judicial appointments
The Supreme Court of Israel with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then-President Reuven Rivlin, 2015
Supreme Court Judges are appointed by the President of Israel, from names submitted by the Judicial Selection Committee, which is composed of nine members: three Supreme Court Judges (including the President of the Supreme Court), two cabinet ministers (one of them being the Minister of Justice), two Knesset members, and two representatives of the Israel Bar Association. Appointing Supreme Court Judges requires a majority of 7 of the 9 committee members, or two less than the number present at the meeting.
All candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court must have a minimum of five years of experience as a district court judge or otherwise at least ten years of professional legal experience including a minimum of five years practicing law in Israel. These requirements may be waived for a person recognized as an "eminent jurist", although this special category has only been used once for an appointment.[8]
The three organs of state—the legislative, executive, and judicial branches of government—as well as the bar association are represented in the Judges' Nominations Committee. Thus, the shaping of the judicial body, through the manner of judicial appointment, is carried out by all the authorities together.
Supreme Court Judges cannot be removed from office except by a decision of the Court of Discipline, consisting of judges appointed by the President of the Supreme Court, or upon a decision of the Judicial Selection Committee—at the proposal of the Minister of Justice or the President of the Supreme Court—with the agreement of seven of its nine members.[9]
The following are qualified to be appointed Judge of the Supreme Court: a person who has held office as a judge of a District Court for a period of five years, or a person who is inscribed, or entitled to be inscribed, in the roll of advocates, and has for not less than ten years –continuously or intermittently, and of which five years at least in Israel – been engaged in the profession of an advocate, served in a judicial capacity or other legal function in the service of the State of Israel or other service as designated in regulations in this regard, or has taught law at a university or a higher school of learning as designated in regulations in this regard. An "eminent jurist" can also be appointed to the Supreme Court.
The number of Supreme Court Judges is determined by a resolution of the Knesset. Currently, there are 13 Supreme Court Judges with 2 vacant places.
At the head of the Supreme Court and at the head of the judicial system as a whole is the President of the Supreme Court, and the Deputy President. A judge serves until reaching 70 years of age, or the judge resigns, dies, is appointed to a position which is disqualifying from continued service as a judge, or is removed from office.
Current judges
As of October2024[update], the Supreme Court judges are:
As an appellate court, the Supreme Court considers cases on appeal (criminal, civil, and military ) on judgments and other decisions of the District Courts. It also considers appeals on judicial and quasi-judicial decisions of various kinds, such as matters relating to the legality of Knesset elections and disciplinary rulings of the Bar Association.
High Court of Justice
As the High Court of Justice (Hebrew: בית משפט גבוה לצדק, Beit Mishpat Gavo'ah LeTzedek; also known as its acronym Bagatz, בג"ץ), the Supreme Court rules on matters within its original jurisdiction, primarily regarding the legality of decisions of State authorities: Government decisions, those of local authorities and other bodies and persons performing public functions under the law, and direct challenges to the constitutionality of laws enacted by the Knesset. The Israeli Defense Forces are also subject to the HCJ's judicial review.[11]
The court has broad discretionary authority to rule on matters in which it considers it necessary to grant relief in the interests of justice, and which are not within the jurisdiction of another court or tribunal.[12] The High Court of Justice grants relief through orders such as injunction, mandamus and Habeas Corpus, as well as through declaratory judgments.
Further hearing
The Supreme Court can also sit at a “further hearing” on its own judgment. In a matter on which the Supreme Court has ruled, whether as a court of appeals or as the High Court of Justice, with a panel of three or more Judges, it may rule at a further hearing with a panel of a larger number of Judges. A further hearing may be held if the Supreme Court makes a ruling inconsistent with a previous ruling or if the Court deems that the importance, difficulty or novelty of a ruling of the Court justifies such hearing.
Composition
The Supreme Court, both as an appellate court and the High Court of Justice, is normally constituted of a panel of three Judges. A single Supreme Court Judge may rule on interim orders, temporary orders or petitions for an order nisi, and on appeals on interim rulings of District Courts, or on judgments given by a single District Court judge on appeal, and on a judgment or decision of the Magistrates’ Courts.
The Supreme Court sits as a panel of five Judges or more in a rehearing on a matter in which the Supreme Court sat with a panel of three Judges. The Supreme Court may sit as a panel of a larger uneven number of Judges than three in matters that involve fundamental legal questions and constitutional issues of particular importance.
Presiding Judge
In a case on which the President of the Supreme Court sits, the President is the Presiding Judge; in a case on which the Deputy President sits and the President does not sit, the Deputy President is the Presiding Judge; in any other case, the Judge with the greatest length of service is the Presiding Judge. The length of service, for this purpose, is calculated from the date of the appointment of the Judge to the Supreme Court.
Retrial
A special power, unique to the Supreme Court, is the power to order a retrial on a criminal matter in which the defendant has been convicted by a final judgment. A ruling to hold a retrial may be made where the Court finds that evidence provided in the case was based upon lies or was forged; where new facts or evidence are discovered that are likely to alter the decision in the case in favor of the accused; where another has meanwhile been convicted of carrying out the same offense and it appears from the circumstances revealed in the trial of that other person that the original party convicted of the offense did not commit it; or, where there is a real concern for miscarriage of justice in the conviction. In practice, a ruling to hold a retrial is very rarely made.
Judicial opinions
The Court announces its judgments through individually signed opinions setting out the result and underlying reasoning. In general, there is a lead opinion for the majority, but there is no "opinion of the Court" as such. Each participating Judge will either note that she or he concurs in the lead opinion (and possibly another opinion as well) or write a separate concurrence. It is not unusual for most or all of the participating Judges to write separately, even when they agree as to the outcome.
The Court's opinions are available in Hebrew on its own website and from Nevo. A relatively small subset has been translated into English. These are available in a searchable online database at Versa. They can also be found on the Court's own site and have been published in hard copy in annual volumes by William S. Hein & Co. as the Israel Law Reports. In addition, the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in cooperation with the Court, has published three volumes of English translations of selected decisions entitled Judgments of the Israel Supreme Court: Fighting Terrorism within the Law. These are part of the Versa database and also can be found online at the MFA's website.
Intervention
In the 1980s and the 1990s, the Supreme Court established its role as a protector of human rights, intervening to secure freedom of speech and freedom to demonstrate, reduce military censorship, limit the use of certain military methods[13] and promote equality between various sectors of the population.[14] However critics question the role of the court in protecting the human rights of Palestinians in the West Bank and point to double standards in their application.[15]
The Institute's 2017 poll on the statement "[t]he power of judicial review over Knesset legislation should be taken away from the Supreme Court" found that 58% of Israelis disagree, 36% agree, and 6% do not know.[18]
Trust in the court has since dropped dramatically, with a 2022 poll shows trust in the court dropping to just 41% among Jews,[19] and opposition to an "override clause", allowing the Knesset to nulify supreme court decisions with a 61 vote majority, dropping to just 48%.[20]
Judicial reform attempt
The 2023 Israeli judicial reform is a proposed series of changes to the judicial system and the balance of powers in Israel put forward by the current Israeli government, and spearheaded by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of JusticeYariv Levin and the Chair of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Simcha Rothman. It seeks to curb the judiciary's influence over lawmaking and public policy by limiting the Supreme Court's power to exercise judicial review, granting the government control over judicial appointments and limiting the authority of government legal advisors. If adopted, the reform would grant the Knesset the power to override Supreme Court rulings by a majority of 61 or more votes, diminish the ability of the court to conduct judicial review of legislation and of administrative action, prohibit the court from ruling on the constitutionality of basic laws, and change the makeup of the Judicial Selection Committee so that a majority of its members are appointed by the government. On 24 July 2023, the Knesset passed a bill that curbs the power of the Supreme Court to declare government decisions unreasonable.[21][22] On 1 January 2024, the court ruled, by a narrow 8-to-7 majority, that the Knesset law blocking the court's use of the "reasonableness" doctrine was unconstitutional, overturning the law—thus self-validating, reasserting and reinforcing the court's own authority to use the "reasonableness" standard, at its discretion, to review and overturn Knesset-passed laws.[23][24][25] At the same time, by a broad 12–3 majority, the court ruled that it had the right to review any Knesset-passed Basic Law, and decide on its constitutional legitimacy, so as to "intervene in those rare and exceptional cases wherein the Knesset exceeds its Constitutive authority."[23][24][25] The rulings were seen as a major defeat for Netanyahu and Levin, but likely not the final word on the issue.[23][24][25]
Since the reform failed, since 2023, Levin trying to assert greater control over the judiciary, has blocked the accession of Amit as permanent president, who should be appointed based on the longstanding seniority-based system.[26] In September 2024 he was ordered by the Supreme Court to convene the Judicial Selection Committee and elect a new president for the Supreme Court as quickly as possible, which means Amit will most likely become the next permanent president of the Supreme Court against Levin's wishes.[27]
Architecture
An aerial photo of the Supreme Court building covered in snowMosaic pavement recovered from the ancient Hamat Gader synagogue
The building was donated to Israel by the Jewish philanthropist Dorothy de Rothschild.[28] Outside the President's Chamber has displayed the letter Ms. Rothschild wrote to Prime Minister Shimon Peres expressing her intention to donate a new building for the Supreme Court.[29]
It was designed by Ram Karmi and Ada Karmi-Melamede and opened in 1992.[30] According to the critic Ran Shechori, the building is a "serious attempt to come to grips with the local building tradition". He writes that,
It makes rich and wide-ranging references to the whole lexicon of Eretz-Israel building over the centuries, starting with Herodian structures, through the Hellenistic tomb of Absalom, the Crusaders, Greek Orthodox monasteries, and up to the British Mandate period. This outpouring is organized in a complex, almost baroque structure, built out of contrasts light-shade, narrow-wide, open-closed, stone-plaster, straight-round, and a profusion of existential experiences.[31]
Paul Goldberger of The New York Times calls it "Israel's finest public building," achieving "a remarkable and exhilarating balance between the concerns of daily life and the symbolism of the ages." He notes the complexity of the design with its interrelated geometric patterns:
There is no clear front door and no simple pattern to the organization. The building cannot be described solely as long, or solely as rounded or as being arranged around a series of courtyards, though from certain angles, like the elephant described by the blind man, it could be thought to be any one of these. The structure, in fact, consists of three main sections: a square library wing within which is set a round courtyard containing a copper-clad pyramid, a rectangular administrative wing containing judges' chambers arrayed around a cloistered courtyard and a wing containing five courtrooms, all of which extend like fingers from a great main hall.[32]
The building is a blend of enclosed and open spaces; old and new; lines and circles.[30] Approaching the Supreme Court library, one enters the pyramid area, a large space that serves as a turning point before the entrance to the courtrooms. This serene space acts as the inner "gatehouse" of the Supreme Court building. The Pyramid was inspired by the Tomb of Zechariah and Tomb of Absalom in the Kidron Valley in Jerusalem.[30] Natural light enters round windows at the apex of the pyramid, forming circles of sunlight on the inside walls and on the floor.[33]
Aharon Barak is an Israeli lawyer and jurist who served as President of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1995 to 2006. Prior to this, Barak served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of Israel from 1978 to 1995, and before this as Attorney General of Israel from 1975 to 1978.
Dorit Beinisch is a retired Israeli jurist. She was the 9th president of the Supreme Court of Israel. Appointed on September 14, 2006, after the retirement of Aharon Barak, she served in this position until February 28, 2012. She was the first woman to serve as president of the Israeli Supreme Court.
The judicial system of Israel consists of secular courts and religious courts. The law courts constitute a separate and independent unit of Israel's Ministry of Justice. The system is headed by the President of the Supreme Court and the Minister of Justice.
The Court of Cassation of Belgium is the supreme court of the Belgian judiciary. The court is composed of thirty judges with life tenure who are nominated by the High Council of Justice of Belgium and appointed by the Belgian federal government. The court handles cases in the two main languages of Belgium, Dutch and French, and provides certain facilities for cases in German. The court is assisted in its work by a public prosecutor's office and a bar association, which both function separately from other structures. The duty of the public prosecutor's office is to provide advisory opinions to the court on how the law ought to be interpreted and applied. The attorneys of the court's bar association assist litigants in proceedings before the court; in certain cases, their assistance is mandatory.
In most legal jurisdictions, a supreme court, also known as a court of last resort, apex court, and highcourt of appeal, and court of final appeal, is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts. Broadly speaking, the decisions of a supreme court are binding on all other courts in a nation and are not subject to further review by any other court. Supreme courts typically function primarily as appellate courts, hearing appeals from decisions of lower trial courts, or from intermediate-level appellate courts. A supreme court can also, in certain circumstances, act as a court of original jurisdiction.
Israeli law is based mostly on a common law legal system, though it also reflects the diverse history of the territory of the State of Israel throughout the last hundred years, as well as the legal systems of its major religious communities. The Israeli legal system is based on common law, which also incorporates facets of civil law. The Israeli Declaration of Independence asserted that a formal constitution would be written, though it has been continuously postponed since 1950. Instead, the Basic Laws of Israel function as the country's constitutional laws. Statutes enacted by the Knesset, particularly the Basic Laws, provide a framework which is enriched by political precedent and jurisprudence. Foreign and historical influences on modern-day Israeli law are varied and include the Mecelle and German civil law, religious law, and British common law. The Israeli courts have been influenced in recent years by American Law and Canadian Law and to a lesser extent by Continental Law.
Yariv Gideon Levin is an Israeli lawyer and politician who serves as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice. He served as Speaker of the Knesset in December 2022, previously serving that role from 2020 to 2021. He currently serves as a member of Knesset for Likud, and previously held the posts of Minister of Internal Security, Minister of Tourism, and Minister of Aliyah and Integration.
Edmond Eliyahu Levy was an Israeli judge of the Supreme Court of Israel and member of the Judicial Selection Committee. In January 2012, he was appointed by Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu to head a three-member committee to examine the legal aspects of land ownership in the West Bank. The committee′s report, usually referred to as the "Levy Report", was published in July 2012.
The Israeli Judicial Selection Committee is the body that appoints judges to Israeli courts.
Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, informally known as the Nation-State Bill or the Nationality Bill, is an Israeli Basic Law that specifies the country's significance to the Jewish people. It was passed by the Knesset—with 62 in favour, 55 against, and two abstentions—on 19 July 2018 and is largely symbolic and declarative in nature. The law outlines a number of roles and responsibilities by which Israel is bound in order to fulfill the purpose of serving as the Jews' nation-state. However, it was met with sharp backlash internationally and has been characterized as racist and undemocratic by some critics. After it was passed, several groups in the Jewish diaspora expressed concern that it was actively violating Israel's self-defined legal status as a "Jewish and democratic state" in exchange for adopting an exclusively Jewish identity. The European Union stated that the Nation-State Bill had complicated the Israeli–Palestinian peace process, while the Arab League, the Palestine Liberation Organization, the Organization of Islamic Cooperation, and the Muslim World League condemned it as a manifestation of apartheid.
Uzi Fogelman is a former justice of the Supreme Court of Israel and served as the acting president of the Supreme Court of Israel from 16 October 2023 to 1 October 2024. Vogelman had a deep impact on Israeli jurisprudence, and especially during his time on the Supreme Court as a liberal justice, issuing several rulings that advanced the rights of minority groups in Israel.
Isaac Amit is a judge on the Supreme Court of Israel and serves as the acting President of the Supreme Court of Israel since 1 October 2024. Amit has had a major impact on the Supreme Court as a liberal justice.
The Basic Laws of Israel are fourteen quasi-constitutional laws of the State of Israel, some of which can only be changed by a supermajority vote in the Knesset. Many of these laws are based on the individual liberties that were outlined in the Israeli Declaration of Independence. The Basic Laws deal with the formation and role of the principal institutions of the state, and with the relations between the state's authorities. They also protect the country's civil rights, although some of these rights were earlier protected at common law by the Supreme Court of Israel. The Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty enjoys super-legal status, giving the Supreme Court the authority to disqualify any law contradicting it, as well as protection from Emergency Regulations.
Esther Hayut is an Israeli jurist who served as president of the Supreme Court of Israel from October 2017 to October 2023.
Joseph Elron is an Israeli judge who has served as a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel since 2017.
The Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy is a voluntary, non-affiliated and independent group of about 140 permanent faculty members in the law faculties of academic institutions in Israel. The Forum was founded in 2023, in response to the 2023 Israeli judicial reform. The Forum opposes this plan, and advocates the maintenance of a robust separation of powers with sustainable checks and balances.
Shlomo Levin is an Israeli jurist. He was a Justice and Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Israel.
The 2023 Israeli judicial reform is a set of five changes to the judicial system and the balance of powers in Israel that was proposed in January 2023. The intent of the measures is to curb the judiciary's influence over lawmaking and public policy by limiting the Supreme Court's power to exercise judicial review, granting the government control over judicial appointments and limiting the authority of its legal advisors. The effort was led by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice Yariv Levin and the Chair of the Knesset's Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, Simcha Rothman.
The President of the Supreme Court of Israel is one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Israel, who serves as head of the body, and as result has a significant impact on the judiciary system in Israel.
On 4 January 2023 the newly appointed Israeli justice minister Yariv Levin announced his intention to make a number of major changes to the judicial system and the balance of powers in Israel. On 11 January, Levin published a draft of his proposed changes, which included significant changes to the judiciary, executive and legislative processes and functions. The government's proposed reform has sparked intense controversy in Israel. Opposition leaders, senior past civil servants, economists, activists, jurists, and others have harshly criticized the proposed changes, arguing they will undermine judicial independence and effectively grant the government unchecked power. The opponents to the reform include reservists in Israel's security forces, with some stating they will stop conducting reserve duty service if the proposed reform is progressed through as legislation. They also include members of Israel's financial and tech sectors. Large-scale street protests against the reform began shortly after its introduction and took place until 7 October, when the Israel–Hamas war began.
References
↑ Version of emblem of Israel used by the Judicial Authority. court.gov.il
↑ Samia Chouchane, «The judicialization of the Israeli military Ethics. A political analysis of the Supreme Court's role in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict», Bulletin de Recherche du Centre de Recherche Français à Jérusalem, 20 | 2009
↑ Shamir, Ronen (1990). "Landmark Cases and the Reproduction of Legitimacy: The Case of Israel's High Court of Justice". Law and Society Review. 24 (3): 781–805. doi:10.2307/3053859. JSTOR3053859.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
