Hanan Melcer (, born April 1951) is an Israeli judge who served as a justice on the
Supreme Court of Israel and Deputy Chief Justice.
Biography
Hanan Melcer was born in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( he, תֵּל־אָבִיב-יָפוֹ, translit=Tēl-ʾĀvīv-Yāfō ; ar, تَلّ أَبِيب – يَافَا, translit=Tall ʾAbīb-Yāfā, links=no), often referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the ...
to
Holocaust survivors
Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no universally accep ...
from
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. He attended high school at the
Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium
The Herzliya Hebrew Gymnasium ( he, הַגִּימְנַסְיָה הָעִבְרִית הֶרְצְלִיָּה, ''HaGymnasia HaIvrit Herzliya'', Also known as ''Gymnasia Herzliya''), originally known as HaGymnasia HaIvrit (lit. Hebrew High Scho ...
, and studied law at
Tel Aviv University
Tel Aviv University (TAU) ( he, אוּנִיבֶרְסִיטַת תֵּל אָבִיב, ''Universitat Tel Aviv'') is a public research university in Tel Aviv, Israel. With over 30,000 students, it is the largest university in the country. Locate ...
in the
Atuda
Atuda, or Academic Atuda ( he, עתודה אקדמית, literally: Academic Reserve), is a program of the Israeli Defense Forces which enables high school graduates to defer the draft and attend university prior to their military service. After th ...
program, where he also later taught as a
Law Professor. Melcer received
BA in law with honors and a master's degree in statutory law. After graduating, he enlisted in the
IDF
IDF or idf may refer to:
Defence forces
* Irish Defence Forces
* Israel Defense Forces
*Iceland Defense Force, of the US Armed Forces, 1951-2006
* Indian Defence Force, a part-time force, 1917
Organizations
* Israeli Diving Federation
* Interac ...
in the
Military Advocate General
The Military Advocate General (MAG Corps') ( he, הפרקליטות הצבאית, ''HaParklitut HaTzva'it'') is responsible for implementing the rule of law within the Israel Defense Forces. The unit's objectives include integrating the rule of ...
's Office, serving as a military prosecutor and reaching the rank of
lieutenant colonel.
Political and legal career
In 1977, he founded his own law firm dealing in infrastructure, communications, corporate, banking, antitrust, securities, and administrative law. As an attorney, he handled the legal aspects of some of Israel's largest infrastructure projects.
In the 1970s, he was active in
Dash
The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...
and was a fierce opponent of the coalition with
Begin and his right-wing
Likud
Likud ( he, הַלִּיכּוּד, HaLikud, The Consolidation), officially known as Likud – National Liberal Movement, is a major centre-right to right-wing political party in Israel. It was founded in 1973 by Menachem Begin and Ariel Sha ...
party in 1977. He was a legal adviser to the Rabin camp of the
Labor Party in 1980. Later, he was involved with the
Shinui
Shinui ( he, שִׁינּוּי, lit. ''Change'') was a Zionist, secular, and anti-clerical free market liberal party and political movement in Israel. The party twice became the third-largest in the Knesset, but both occasions were followed by a ...
party. In 1996 he also ran in the primaries for the Labor Party, where he later served as the influential chairman of its legal committee until he resigned in 2004, after his name came up as a candidate for the
Supreme Court.
On 24 June 2007 he was selected by the
Judicial Committee to serve as a judge on the
Supreme Court. His appointment was historical because it was the first time in decades that a lawyer from the private sector was chosen, and it was part of the judicial shakeup initiated by
Justice Minister
A justice ministry, ministry of justice, or department of justice is a ministry or other government agency in charge of the administration of justice. The ministry or department is often headed by a minister of justice (minister for justice in a ...
Daniel Friedmann.
On 27 August 2007, he was sworn in as a justice of the
Supreme Court by the
President
President most commonly refers to:
*President (corporate title)
* President (education), a leader of a college or university
* President (government title)
President may also refer to:
Automobiles
* Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...
Shimon Peres.
Melcer was part of the decision by the Supreme Court in 2009 to order the government to demolish illegally built Palestinian homes in the West Bank. He was also one of the judges in the controversial ruling on the
Immanuel Beit Yaakov controversy.
[ Beit Yaakov supreme court verdict]
"
See also
*
Israeli law
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 (which was at various times prior to independence under Ottoman, the ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Melcer, Hanan
1951 births
Living people
People from Tel Aviv
Israeli Jews
Judges of the Supreme Court of Israel
Tel Aviv University alumni
Israeli people of Polish-Jewish descent
20th-century Israeli lawyers
21st-century Israeli judges