Last update - 00:00 07/03/2007
Friedmann won't try to limit Supreme Court authority in coming months
By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann has agreed to delay his proposed Basic Law on Legislation, which would include limiting the authority of the Supreme Court and grant the Knesset the authority to reenact laws overturned by the Supreme Court.
Friedmann reached an agreement with Knesset Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee Chairman Menachem Ben-Shushan that, despite his original intentions, the Justice Ministry will not publish the bill in order to allow the committee to advance the issue as part of the deliberations on a comprehensive constitution.
Friedmann then reneged on this agreement, and following the ensuing tensions between the two, Friedmann and Ben-Shushan issued a statement Wednesday, according to which the Justice Ministry will publish a summary of the bill, but Friedmann will not advance the bill as private Knesset legislation.
Sources in Friedmann's office stressed that should the committee delay the matter, Friedmann will then advance the bill as legislation separate from the constitution, as a government-supported bill, during the summer Knesset session.
Sources in Ben-Shushan's office, however, were cautious as to the timetable, saying it was unlikely that Friedmann would be able to pass the bill without coordinating with the committee.
Passing a Basic Law requires that it by prepared for the second and third reading by the Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee, and the committee chairman can determine the pace of those proceedings.
The justice minister has declared his support for the Canadian model of judicial authority to strike down laws. According to the model, courts have the right to invalidate parliamentary legislation if they view it as impinging on human rights protected by the constitution, but the parliament has the authority to revise the legislation after the court ruling, thereby renewing the law's validity.
The revised legislation can generally be passed in ordinary legislative proceedings, and must explicitly state that it applies despite what is written in the constitution.
If the legislature does nothing, then the verdict remains in place, according to the Canadian model. Other constitutional models, by contrast, require the parliament to actively approve the court decision for the law to be overturned.
Friedmann's proposal is his first significant move since being appointed justice minister a month ago. Previous ministers have generally avoided initiating legislation that would restrict the judiciary's constitutional authority. However, Friedmann's initiative is similar to the Justice Ministry's proposed Basic Law on Legislation, which was written last year, during Haim Ramon's tenure as justice minister.
The proposed Basic Law expressly described the judiciary's authority in overturning legislation, saying that only an expanded panel of nine Supreme Court justices could do so. The Canadian model, by contrast, allows all Canadian federal courts to strike down laws. The Canadian model also allows an overturned law to be reinstated with only one round of voting, as opposed to the proposed Basic Law, which requires the law be reinstated by a 61-MK majority in three rounds of voting, or a 70-MK majority in each round once a certain amount of time has passed.