Israeli law is based mostly on a

common law In law, common law (also known as judicial precedent, judge-made law, or case law) is the body of law created by judges and similar quasi-judicial tribunals by virtue of being stated in written opinions."The common law is not a brooding omnipresen ...

legal system, though it also reflects the diverse

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

of the territory of the

State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

throughout the last hundred years (which was at various times prior to independence under Ottoman, then

British British may refer to: Peoples, culture, and language * British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies. ** Britishness, the British identity and common culture * British English, ...

sovereignty), as well as the legal systems of its major

religious communities Religion is usually defined as a social system, social-cultural system of designated religious behaviour, behaviors and practices, morality, morals, beliefs, worldviews, religious text, texts, sacred site, sanctified places, prophecy, prophecie ...

. The Israeli legal system is based on

, which also incorporates facets of civil law. The

Israeli Declaration of Independence The Israeli Declaration of Independence, formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel ( he, הכרזה על הקמת מדינת ישראל), was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 ( 5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive ...

asserted that a formal

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

would be written, though it has been continuously postponed since 1950. Instead, the

Basic Laws of Israel The Basic Laws of Israel ( he, , Ḥukey HaYesod) are thirteen constitutional laws of the State of Israel, and some of them can only be changed by a supermajority vote in the Knesset (with varying requirements for different Basic Laws and section ...

( he, חוקי היסוד, ''ħuqey ha-yesod'') function as the country's

constitutional law Constitutional law is a body of law which defines the role, powers, and structure of different entities within a State (polity), state, namely, the executive (government), executive, the parliament or legislature, and the judiciary; as well as th ...

s. Statutes enacted by the

Knesset The Knesset ( he, הַכְּנֶסֶת ; "gathering" or "assembly") is the unicameral legislature of Israel. As the supreme state body, the Knesset is sovereign and thus has complete control of the entirety of the Israeli government (with ...

, particularly the Basic Laws, provide a framework which is enriched by political

precedent A precedent is a principle or rule established in a previous legal case that is either binding on or persuasive for a court or other tribunal when deciding subsequent cases with similar issues or facts. Common-law legal systems place great valu ...

and

jurisprudence Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of legal reasoning a ...

. Foreign and historical influences on modern-day Israeli law are varied and include the

Mecelle The Mecelle was the civil code of the Ottoman Empire in the late 19th and early 20th century. It was the first attempt to codify a part of the Sharia-based law of an Islamic state. Name The Ottoman Turkish name of the code is ''Mecelle-ʾi A� ...

(

Hebrew Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...

: מג'לה; the civil code of the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

) and German civil law, religious law (Jewish

Halakha ''Halakha'' (; he, הֲלָכָה, ), also transliterated as ''halacha'', ''halakhah'', and ''halocho'' ( ), is the collective body of Jewish religious laws which is derived from the written and Oral Torah. Halakha is based on biblical commandm ...

and Muslim

Sharia Sharia (; ar, شريعة, sharīʿa ) is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the H ...

; mostly pertaining in the area of

family law Family law (also called matrimonial law or the law of domestic relations) is an area of the law that deals with family matters and domestic relations. Overview Subjects that commonly fall under a nation's body of family law include: * Marriage, ...

), and

common law. The Israeli courts have been influenced in recent years by

American Law The law of the United States comprises many levels of codified and uncodified forms of law, of which the most important is the nation's Constitution, which prescribes the foundation of the federal government of the United States, as well as va ...

and

Canadian Law The legal system of Canada is Legal pluralism, pluralist: its foundations lie in the English common law system (inherited from its period as a colony of the British Empire), the Napoleonic Code, French civil law system (inherited from its New Fra ...

and to a lesser extent by

Continental Law Civil law is a legal system originating in mainland Europe and adopted in much of the world. The civil law system is intellectualized within the framework of Roman law, and with core principles codified into a referable system, which serves as th ...

(mostly from

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

History

The modern judicial system in Palestine, later the State of Israel, was established by a British senior judicial officer,

Orme Bigland Clarke Orme Bigland Clarke, 4th Baronet (8 October 1880 in Calcutta, India – 31 March 1949) was a British lawyer and military officer. Biography He was the son of Frederick Clarke, second son of Sir Charles Clarke, 2nd Baronet, and Adelaide Catherine ...

, who was appointed by General

Edmund Allenby Field Marshal Edmund Henry Hynman Allenby, 1st Viscount Allenby, (23 April 1861 – 14 May 1936) was a senior British Army officer and Imperial Governor. He fought in the Second Boer War and also in the First World War, in which he led th ...

in 1918, following the British conquest. The British military administration of Palestine (1917-1920) was replaced with a civilian one which operated under the

Constitution of Mandatory Palestine The Constitution of Mandatory Palestine, formally known as the 10 August 1922 Palestine Order-in-Council, was the codified constitution of Mandatory Palestine. It was first published on 1 September 1922 in an Extraordinary Issue of the Palestine Ga ...

, promulgated through an

Order in Council An Order-in-Council is a type of legislation in many countries, especially the Commonwealth realms. In the United Kingdom this legislation is formally made in the name of the monarch by and with the advice and consent of the Privy Council ('' Ki ...

by the British monarch in 1922. Britain, which in 1920 received a

League of Nations mandate A League of Nations mandate was a legal status for certain territories transferred from the control of one country to another following World War I, or the legal instruments that contained the internationally agreed-upon terms for administ ...

to govern Palestine, implemented the common-law system, except for the jury system. Legal precedents in

tort A tort is a civil wrong that causes a claimant to suffer loss or harm, resulting in legal liability for the person who commits the tortious act. Tort law can be contrasted with criminal law, which deals with criminal wrongs that are punishable ...

s and contracts were borrowed from England, and certain legal areas were codified in order to assure

legal certainty Legal certainty is a principle in national and international law which holds that the law must provide those subject to it with the ability to regulate their conduct. The legal system needs to permit those subject to the law to regulate their condu ...

. Thus the

penal code A criminal code (or penal code) is a document that compiles all, or a significant amount of a particular jurisdiction's criminal law. Typically a criminal code will contain offences that are recognised in the jurisdiction, penalties that might ...

in Israel was practically the same as that used by the British in

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

or in other British colonies and territories. On 14 May 1948 a Bill of Independence was signed as a manifesto for the new State of Israel. While it was drafted as a universal and democratic declaration expressing noble ideas prevalent at the time, it is non-binding, although it has occasionally been used as a guiding tool by the courts. With the establishment of the Israeli state, English law as it was on the date of independence remained binding, with post-1948 English law developments being persuasive and not binding. This was enabled by the first legislative act of the

Provisional State Council The Provisional State Council ( he, מועצת המדינה הזמנית, ''Moetzet HaMedina HaZmanit'') was the temporary legislature of Israel from shortly before independence until the election of the first Knesset in January 1949. It took the ...

, which enacted a

reception statute A reception statute is a statutory law adopted as a former British colony becomes independent by which the new nation adopts, or receives, the English common law before its independence to the extent not explicitly rejected by the legislative body ...

as part of the "Law and Administration Ordinance" published on 19 May 1948, four days after the Declaration of Independence.
Law and Administration Ordinance
', 1948 – №1, ''Section 11'' Some aspects of Turkish

Ottoman law The Ottoman Empire was governed by different sets of laws during its existence. The '' Qanun'', sultanic law, co-existed with religious law (mainly the Hanafi school of Islamic jurisprudence). Legal administration in the Ottoman Empire was part ...

still remain operational , such as placing personal status and

marriage law Marriage law refers to the legal requirements that determine the validity of a marriage, and which vary considerably among countries. See also Marriage Act. Summary table Rights and obligations A marriage, by definition, bestows ...

in the hands of religious courts. Also the Turks had adopted a Napoleonic-style land-registration system, through a successive Block and Lot entries. Many Turkish land laws remain in force. Following independence the young State of Israel was eager to gain recognition in the international arena by joining international treaties and participating heavily in the negotiations of international treaties, e.g., the 1929

Warsaw convention The Convention for the Unification of certain rules relating to international carriage by air, commonly known as the Warsaw Convention, is an international convention which regulates liability for international carriage of persons, luggage, or ...

. During the 1960s there was a rush to codify much of the common law in areas of contracts and torts. The new laws blended common law, local case-law, and fresh ideas. In 1977 the Knesset codified the penal code. Since the 1990s the Israeli Ministry of Justice, together with leading jurists, has been laboring on a complete recodification of all laws pertaining to civil matters. This new proposed civil codex was introduced in 2006, but its adoption through legislation is expected to take many years, if not decades. As a result of "

Enclave law Israeli law is enforced in Israeli settlements and among Israeli civilians in Area C of the West Bank, a Palestinian territory under military occupation and therefore otherwise subject to military law. Some provisions are applied on a persona ...

", large portions of Israeli law apply in

Israeli settlements Israeli settlements, or Israeli colonies, are civilian communities inhabited by Israeli citizens, overwhelmingly of Jewish ethnicity, built on lands occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. The international community considers Israeli se ...

and to Israeli residents in the occupied territories.

Court system

The Magistrate Court (''Beit Mishpat Hashalom'') handles civil cases of less than 2.5 million

shekels Shekel or sheqel ( akk, 𒅆𒅗𒇻 ''šiqlu'' or ''siqlu,'' he, שקל, plural he, שקלים or shekels, Phoenician: ) is an ancient Mesopotamian coin, usually of silver. A shekel was first a unit of weight—very roughly —and became c ...

, excluding disputes over the ownership of land, as well as criminal cases in which the maximum sentence is 7 years. Magistrate Courts are to be found in most Israeli towns. The Magistrate Court has 6 subdivisions. (1) The Juvenile Court deals with criminal offenses committed by people who were not 18 on the date of prosecution and some issues relating to the removal of children from parental custody. (2) The Family Court deals with all civil cases where the parties are close family members. (3) The Small Claims Court deals with cases of less than 30 thousand shekels. (4) "Hotsa'a Lapoal" is the bailiffs office for judgment debt collection. (5) The Traffic Court deals with all traffic offenses. (6) The Court of Local Issues deals with all offenses prosecuted by local authorities (parking tickets, planning violations etc.). The District Court (''Beit Mishpat Mehozi'') deals with all civil and criminal matters not under the jurisdiction of the Magistrate Court, including disputes over the ownership of land. It has jurisdiction over most administrative cases and hears appeals from the Magistrate Court. There are six courts, one in each of Israel's districts:

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

(also has extra jurisdiction of extra territorial matters),

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 G ...

Haifa Haifa ( he, חֵיפָה ' ; ar, حَيْفَا ') is the third-largest city in Israel—after Jerusalem and Tel Aviv—with a population of in . The city of Haifa forms part of the Haifa metropolitan area, the third-most populous metropol ...

, Center (in

Petah Tikva Petah Tikva ( he, פֶּתַח תִּקְוָה, , ), also known as ''Em HaMoshavot'' (), is a city in the Central District (Israel), Central District of Israel, east of Tel Aviv. It was founded in 1878, mainly by Haredi Judaism, Haredi Jews of ...

), South (in

Beer-Sheva Beersheba or Beer Sheva, officially Be'er-Sheva ( he, בְּאֵר שֶׁבַע, ''Bəʾēr Ševaʿ'', ; ar, بئر السبع, Biʾr as-Sabʿ, Well of the Oath or Well of the Seven), is the largest city in the Negev desert of southern Israel. ...

), and North (in

Nazareth Nazareth ( ; ar, النَّاصِرَة, ''an-Nāṣira''; he, נָצְרַת, ''Nāṣəraṯ''; arc, ܢܨܪܬ, ''Naṣrath'') is the largest city in the Northern District of Israel. Nazareth is known as "the Arab capital of Israel". In ...

). The

Israeli Supreme Court The Supreme Court (, ''Beit HaMishpat HaElyon''; ar, المحكمة العليا) is the Supreme court, highest court in Israel. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all other courts, and in some cases original jurisdiction. The Supreme C ...

(''Beit Mishpat Elyon'') mostly hears appeals from the District Court but also sits as the High Court of Justice and as such hears administrative cases not under the jurisdiction of the District Courts. Many political cases and cases of international interest are heard by the Supreme Court sitting as the High Court of Justice. The Labour Tribunals (''Batei Ha'din Le'avoda'') hears all cases where the parties are employer and employee, all cases against the National Insurance Institute and some other socially oriented matters. it is an independent system composed of 5 district tribunals (Jerusalem, Tel-Aviv, Haifa, South and North) and one national tribunal in Jerusalem (''Beit Ha'din Ha'artzi''). There are also religious tribunals in Israel. Some specific legal matters in Israel (e.g., matters of personal status such as marriage and divorce) come under the jurisdiction of the religious tribunal system. There is a list of legally recognized religious communities:

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

Muslim Muslims ( ar, المسلمون, , ) are people who adhere to Islam, a monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God of Abrah ...

Greek Orthodox Christian The term Greek Orthodox Church (Greek: Ἑλληνορθόδοξη Ἐκκλησία, ''Ellinorthódoxi Ekklisía'', ) has two meanings. The broader meaning designates "the entire body of Orthodox (Chalcedonian) Christianity, sometimes also call ...

Catholic Christian The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

etc. The small

Protestant Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...

Christian community in Israel is not recognized; the Jewish community for this purpose does not include the non-Orthodox denominations, Reform and Conservative. Each religious community has its own religious court. For example, Jewish weddings are sanctioned only by the local Religious Council, and divorces of Jews are handled exclusively by the Rabbinical Courts. The judges (''dayanim'') of the Jewish Rabbinical Courts are all Orthodox rabbis. (Matters incidental to divorce such as distribution of property, child custody etc. are dealt with in the Family Courts, but the personal law of the parties will be applied.) The judges of the various courts are chosen by a committee comprising 9 members: 3 Supreme Court Judges, 2 government ministers (one is the Minister of Justice), 2 members of the Knesset (one from the opposition), and 2 representatives of the

Israel Bar Association Israel Bar Association (; IBA) is the bar association for all Israeli lawyers. History The Israel Bar Association is organized as a corporation, with a Central Committee, a National Assembly and five districts. Membership is mandatory for lawy ...

The composition of the committee is slightly different when it chooses Labour Court Judges or judges of the religious tribunals.

References

Bibliography

* Shimon Shetreet, Walter Homolka, ''Jewish and Israeli Law – An Introduction'', De Gruyter Boston/Berlin 2017.

External links

Israeli Law GuideBasic Laws of the State of Israel
from the

Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs ( he, מִשְׂרַד הַחוּץ, Romanization of Hebrew, translit. ''Misrad HaHutz''; ar, وزارة الخارجية الإسرائيلية) is one of the most important ministries in the Cabinet of I ...

The JudiciaryThe Bar of Israel
(Judicial branch of Israel)
The Knesset
(Legislative branch of Israel)
Israeli Ministry of Justice
(Executive branch body responsible for the judicial branch of Israel)
Contract Law of IsraelRegularly updating articles on law in IsraelSelection of articles for legal consumers in Israel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Israeli Law