Last update - 00:00 11/03/2008
Justice Min. says he'll freeze bill to restrict Supreme Court power
By Tomer Zarhin, Haaretz Correspondent
Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann told reporters on Tuesday that he intends to freeze a bill aimed at curtailing the power of the Supreme Court by limiting the issues on which it can rule.
Friedmann said that he hopes that at this stage, after several new judges have been appointed, the Supreme Court will "take the initiative to restrict its own jurisdiction without any need of legislation."
Friedmann had sought to bar the Supreme Court from ruling on defense and fiscal issues, or State Prosecution decisions made on criminal issues, plea bargains and the closing of cases.
Meanwhile, Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch hinted that Friedmann's moves to restrict the court were due to personal motivations, in an interview published in the Israel Bar Association's journal.
"I cannot rule out there being a personal motivation, and neither can I confirm that there is one. It doesn't appear to me as a figment of someone's imagination in the light of all the events, but I don't know... He disagreed with us in the past, but not with the current level of intensity," the chief justice said.
Friedmann's planned reforms for the Supreme Court, which he declared to pursue upon his appointment the Justice Ministry in February 2007, included making requirements for petitioning the Supreme Court more stringent, in order to lessen the court's workload, in his words.
"A Supreme Court judge has the power to decide whether a case should be heard at all," the justice minister said.
"In the past there were issues that were beyond the Supreme Court's jurisdiction, and everybody knew it. It is not the case to today, and the result is that everyone can petition the High Court of Justice about anything," he added.
Friedmann's frozen proposal is one in a series of reforms that were subject to strident criticism for allegedly delivering a blow to the Supreme Court's constitutional power.
Beinisch said upon the launch of the proposal that "the fact that the government or one of its subsidiaries has taken a certain decision - whether political, diplomatic or any other - should not automatically make it immune to judicial review."
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