Constitutional Law of Israel

Israel is a young constitutional democracy, although it has no one official document known as "The Constitution." Following crucial evolutions during the 1990's, Israel - formally a state based on parliamentary sovereignty - became a constitutional state, its supreme norms expressed in Basic Laws. Israel's system of government also underwent changes, towards a semi-presidential system and back to a parliamentary democracy. This book describes Israel's constitutional developments and focuses on the "constitutional revolution" of the 1990's, the evolution of judicial review and the special role of the Supreme Court of Israel in constitutional conflicts. A general introduction of the constitutional history is followed up by the sources of constitutional law in Israel. The discussion on the form of Government deals with the changes in the system of government; the Head of State (the president); the legislature (the Knesset: its constituent power and its legislative power); the executive and the judiciary. Other chapters present the special rules of citizenship; fundamental rights and liberties; constitutional problems of minorities; judicial control of administrative actions; the relation between religion and State and the specific problems of emergency laws and war.