Kingston Law School Research Seminar: The Supreme Court of Israel - The Lasting Legacy of Its British Founding Father

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Time: 1.00pm - 1.50pm
Venue: KH0015, Kingston Hill campus, Kingston Hill, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT2 7LB
Price: free
Speaker(s): Dr Yair Sagy, Univeristy of Haifa School of Law

The Supreme Court of Israel: The Lasting Legacy of Its British Founding Father
Yair Sagy*

The Supreme Court of Israel serves two major functions. First, as is commonly the case, it is the ultimate court of appeal in the land. Second, and much more intriguingly, it sits as the High Court of Justice (HCJ), a court of first and last resort, which has always been the judicial forum to review contested actions of state organs and to write the state's unwritten "constitution." This configuration of the Supreme Court, which was introduced in 1922, is one of the legacies of the British Mandatory rule over Palestine. While the Court's jurisprudence has surely undergone major transformations over the years, its formal jurisdiction and basic design have hardly changed throughout its history. This article offers a methodology for studying the entire history of the Court in general and of the HCJ in particular. Drawing on historical institutionalism-the historical school that grew out of the immensely-influential new institutionalism-the article identifies three critical junctures in the history of the HCJ. It highlights enduring aspects in the operation of the Court that cut across that history and reveals how durable its original design has been. Since the HCJ was the brainchild of Chief Justice Sir Thomas Haycraft, ultimately the article reveals how deep, everlasting, and powerful his creative scheme of the Court has proven to be.

* Senior Lecturer, University of Haifa Faculty of Law, Israel.

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Contact: Penny Darbyshire
Email: p.darbyshire@kingston.ac.uk