Justice Minister Yariv Levin and Foreign Minister Gideon Saar announced on Thursday a compromise agreement on a new judicial reform proposal that deals with the composition of the Judicial Selection Committee and the enactment of Basic Laws.
According to the proposed outline, the committee will include three Supreme Court justices, two lawyers (one from the coalition and one from the opposition), two MKs (one from the coalition and one from the opposition), and two ministers. Appointing a judge to the Supreme Court will require the support of at least one coalition member and one opposition member. This means that judges will not be elected by a simple coalition majority, and at the same time, there will be no election of judges by a majority that does not include any representative from the coalition.
In addition, a Basic Law will be passed differentiating the passage of Basic Laws from normal laws. This will prevent the passage of quasi-constitutional legislation in spur-of–the-moment moves. There will be no judicial review of Basic Laws, except for basic laws that violate equality in elections, which can be invalidated by a three-quarters majority of the court’s judges.
If passed, these reforms would only come into effect in the next Knesset after the next elections. While a compromise, it should, we hope, ensure that Israel will not be governed by a juristocracy, but rather by its elected government.