Laws Of The State Of Israel

Defining Israel: The Jewish State, Democracy, and the Law is the first book in any language devoted to the controversial passage of Israel's nation-state law. Israel has no constitution, and though it calls itself the Jewish state there is no agreement among Israelis on how that fact should be reflected in the government's laws or by its courts. Since the 1990s a number of civil society groups and legislators have drafted constitutions and proposed Basic Laws with constitutional standing that would clarify what it means for Israel to be a "Jewish and democratic state." Are these bills liberal or chauvinist? Are they a defense of the Knesset or an attack on the independence of the courts? Is their intention democratic or anti-democratic? The fight over the nation-state law-whether to have one and what should be in it-toppled the 19th Knesset's governing coalition and, even after its passage on July 29, 2018, remains a point of contention among Israel's lawmakers and increasingly the Israeli public. Defining Israel brings together influential scholars, journalists, and politicians, observers and participants, opponents and proponents, Jews and Arabs, all debating the merits and meaning of Israel's nation-state law. Together with translations of each draft law, the final law, and other key documents, the essays and sources in Defining Israel are essential to understand the ongoing debate over what it means for Israel to be a Jewish and democratic state.

This book instructively introduces the reader to the basics of Jewish law. It gives a detailed, cutting-edge analysis of contemporary public and private law in the State of Israel, as well as Israel’s legal culture, its system of government, and the roles of its democratic institutions: the executive, parliament, and judiciary. The book examines issues of Holocaust, law and religion, constitutionalization, and equality.

In the domain of comparative constitutionalism, Israeli constitutional law is a fascinating case study constituted of many dilemmas. It is moving from the old British tradition of an unwritten constitution and no judicial review of legislation to fully-fledged constitutionalism endorsing judicial review and based on the text of a series of basic laws. At the same time, it is struggling with major questions of identity, in the context of Israel's constitutional vision of 'a Jewish and Democratic' state. Israeli Constitutional Law in the Making offers a comprehensive study of Israeli constitutional law in a systematic manner that moves from constitution-making to specific areas of contestation including state/religion relations, national security, social rights, as well as structural questions of judicial review. It features contributions by leading scholars of Israeli constitutional law, with comparative comments by leading scholars of constitutional law from Europe and the United States.

In Israel's Higher Law, Steven V. Mazie sheds new light on the relationship between liberalism and religion through a detailed assessment of the Jewish state. Drawing on in-depth interviews with Israeli citizens, this compelling work scrutinizes the ways in which Israelis conceptualize and debate their polity's religion-state arrangement.

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2001 in the subject Law - Comparative Legal Systems, Comparative Law, grade: Sehr Gut, University of Vienna, 321 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: This work intends to show how civil and political rights in Israel and the Occupied Territories are regulated, which normative standards and spiritual sources nourish them, and how written and unwritten principles are applied and interpreted by the Supreme Court of Israel in pursuance of its self-imposed duty to safeguard the individual's rights and freedoms. The legal system of Israel reflects unresolved conflicts, ambiguities of the state and difficulties connected with the process of nation-building as well as dilemmas concerning the ethnic and cultural identity of the population. From 1517 until 1917 Palestine was ruled by the Turks as part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1917 British troops conquered the territory and in 1922 the League of Nations granted to Great Britain the Mandate over Palestine. Following the establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine on 14 May 1948 a large number of British mandatory legislation was absorbed into Israel's legal system. This had and still has far-reaching, restrictive implications for the areas of administrative law and the field of human rights and freedoms. The British mandatory legislation includes security legislation - such as the Defence (Emergency) Regulations, 1945 - which empowers military commanders as well as the entirely executive branch of the government to impose severe restrictions on fundamental rights and freedoms. Despite the enactment of two basic laws on human rights in 1992 many areas, such as personal freedom, freedom of speech and the right of association and assembly are still regulated mainly by British colonial legislation that was never revoked after the establishment of the state of Israel. Since 1948 a permanent state of emergency is in force in Israel. This entitles the