22
Friday, March 23, 1984
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
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11.
1% •
A Michigan judge reviews
the legal system in Israel
By JUDGE KENNETH
BRONSON
Many readers of the
Jewish News have experi-
enced Israel first-hand, but
I don't believe any have re-
ported or have been given
access to the kind of infor-
mation given to myself and
12 other jurists from the
United States, of which only
three were Jewish, on the
American Judicial Founda-
tion's International Confer-
ence in Israel.
Israel, as we all know, is a
land vast in history and
small in geography. Its
legal system derives from
the English Common Law,
Continental Law and reli-
gious courts as left over
from the Turks and the
British.
We were privileged to
study both the constitu-
tional, administration and
organizational processes of
the Israeli judiciary in
meetings with the Attorney
General; past Attorneys
General, Chief Justice
Meijer Shamgar and others.
Israel has no written con-
stitution but has a basic
theory of human rights
which is administered by its
Supreme Court. Its unwrit-
ten constitution operates,
therefore, in much the same
manner as the English con-
stitution does.
Premier David Ben Gur-
ion's theory was that there
were only 600,000 Jews in
Israel in 1948 and that he
expected millions to come to
Israel. He believed Israel
should delay the writing of a
constitution until those mil-
lions came.
The Knesset is now con-
sidering a written constitu-
tion. It appears to be some-
what weaker than the pre-
sent rules on individual lib-
erty, such as the right of
freedom of speech. The draft
includes language such as,
"The right of freedom of
speech shall not be abridged
except as provided by law,"
whereas existing laws make
freedom of speech much
broader.
Israel has approximately
500,000 suits filed in its
civil courts a year. Some
250,000 are traffic cases.
The other 250,000 go gener-
ally into the District and
Supreme Court, as well as
some with lower financial
matters in the Magistrate's
Court.
Observation of Israeli
judges has been that litig-
ants do not tend to settle
their cases and court delay
has ensnared the judicial
process. No jury trial is pro-
vided in Israel by reason of
the tradition handed down
from the English system.
Under the English system
and Mandate of Palestine,
the English feared that
group loyalty would make a
fair trial impossible. There
is no jury available in Israel
or England in civil cases
(other than libel in
England).
The criminal law is based
on the Common Law of
,
Judge Kenneth
Bronson
England and thus is very
similar to U.S. criminal
law. The civil law, to a tre :
mendous extent, is based on
Continental Law - the law
of Europe. For example, in
Israel there is no such thing
as consideration required
for the effectiveness of a
contract. Divorce, mar-
riage, and custody are de-
termined in the religious
courts by each of the reli-
gious groups. In addition,
civil arguments between
the members of the same
religious sects are often de-
termined in the religious
courts.
There is minimal review
of religious courts' decisions
by the Supreme Court, but
there may be a review as to
whether or not such courts
are abiding by their own
regulations.
It is most intriguing that
the religious law of Israel is
not based on Jewish law.
The reason is that the Or-
thodox Jewish groups were
offended that any civil
authority could undertake
to enforce law and interpret
it.
There is a three-tier sys-
tem of magistrates, district
judges and Supreme Court
judges. All are selected by a
nine-member committee.
There is a minimum period
of time where the judges
must have practiced law
(generally 10 years) to qual-
ify for appointment and the
decision of the Committee
must usually be unanim-
ous, at least with regards to
appointments on the Sup-
reme Court, and most al-
ways with regard to ap-
pointments on the District
and Magistrate Courts.
The Supreme Court now
has nine of its 12 consti-
tuted members, there being
a disagreement concerning
the appointment of the re-
placement judges. The ap-
pointing committee is made
up of two Supreme Court
judges, one District Court
judge, two members
selected by the Bar Associa-
tion and four public offi-
cials, generally including
the Attorney General. All of
the members of the commit-
tee are lawyers, although
the civil officials are not re-
quired to be lawyers.
The Israeli Supreme
Court is now constituted
entirely of individuals who
have received their legal
training in Israel. Prev-
.a
0. ...I a. d .•
.
iously, legal training hdd
been received at such places
as Oxford, Cambridge, the
University of Chicago, or on
the Continent. Many of the
new judges, of which there
has been a complete turn-
over in the past five years,
have studied overseas.
Testimony at District
Court trials is not taken
down verbatim. The judges
make summaries of the
facts, and those summaries
are the matters that are
taken up on appeal to the
Supreme Court. A similar
operation exists in the
Magistrate's Courts.
All judges in Israel are
required, during the time
that they are serving, to
wear a black suit, white
shirt and black tie and black
shoes. They also wear robes
when they are sitting, but
even when they are dining
during the working day the
prescribed uniform applies.
The Supreme Court. sits
in a building which used to
be a Russian Orthodox
Monastery used by the
British as its central court,
which is in the Russian
compound in Jerusalem.
The exterior of the building
is marked with bullet holes
inflicted both during the
time of the occupation of the
British and during the war
of 1948.
Israel's Knesset is
now working on a
written constitution
for the country.
The Supreme Court is ex-
traordinarily ill-suited for
its job, having a far less im-
pressive appearance than
most inferior courts in the
U.S. It is interesting to note,
however, that Justices of
the Israel Supreme Court
receive double the pay of the
cabinet members in the
government.
Each Justice is assigned
two law clerks who are re-
cent graduates of the law
school at Tel Aviv Univer-
sity. The law students must
complete a four-year course
after completion of their
service in the military and
then two years as clerks
prior to being admitted to
practice.
No attorney can be admit-
ted to practice before any of
the religious courts unless
they are a member of that
religous sect.
* * *
Judge Bronson is a dis-
trict judge in Washtenaw
County. He is a graduate of
Detroit Central High School
and both the University of
Michigan and Wayne State
University law schools.
Unemployment
Tel Aviv (ZINS) - The Is-
raeli economic journal
Asakim has editorialized
that it expects Israeli un-
employment to rise because
of the government's eco-
nomic policies.
The magazine said that it
did not expect the rate to be
too severe.