Top jurists to Justice Minister: Straighten up or resign - Haaretz

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Fri., August 10, 2007 Av 26, 5767

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		Justice Minister Daniel Friedman. (Alon Ron)

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Last update - 15:20 10/08/2007

Top jurists to Justice Minister: Straighten up or resign

By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent

A group of 15 academics from a number of law faculties in the country have called on Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann to "alter his ways - or resign," in view of what they describe as his "undermining of the rule of law and of democracy."

Among the group are the law schools deans at the universities of Haifa and Tel Aviv, professors Eli Salzberger and Hanoch Dagan, as well as professors Haim Ganz, Ariel Porat, Eyal Benvenisti.

The 15 academics expressed their harsh view in a a petition addressed to Friedmann. Though the petition has not yet been sent to the minister, Friedmann heard of its existence and scheduled a meeting with Professor Dagan for Monday, to discuss the matter before it is made public.

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The criticism of Friedmann comes from law professors who for many years were his colleagues, from when he served as a professor of law at Tel Aviv University.

Supporters of the petition rejected claims that the two people behind the petition are Porat and Benvenisti, who were candidates for appointment to the Supreme Court during the tenures of Tzipi Livni and Haim Ramon at the Justice Ministry, and are no longer candidates.

"We are professors of law at institutions of higher education in Israel," they wrote in the petition, and "we expressed our protest at the modus operandi of our colleague Professor Friedmann as justice minister, and our deep concern for severe and irreparable damage to the rule of law in Israel as a result of the proposals he is promoting.

"We do not believe that the Supreme Court and the other law enforcement authorities are immune to criticism or to the need for reform. Some of us have expressed similar criticism in the past. The importance of criticism is the preservation of the court as a social arena in which decisions are made in favor of all or in support of the rights of the individual.

"For this reason, we regard the series of reforms proposed recently by the minister of justice with severity. The common denominator of these proposals, whose most blatant expression is the proposal for altering the composition of the committee for selecting judges, is to bolster the direct influence of politicians on the court... changes in this direction will not improve the functioning of the legal system; on the contrary, it will deteriorate further that which they would allegedly fix.

"The polemical and rushed character of these reforms proposed by the justice minister, regarding the Supreme Court and other law enforcement agencies, and the way he relates to these institutions and those leading them, do not enable a serious public debate."

According to the academics, Friedmann's style contains "disrespect toward the legal institutions, severely undermines the rule of law and democracy, and is a style that is unbecoming any one, and [in the case of] the minister of justice, who is responsible for the legal system, it is unacceptable."

The authors of the petition "call on the minister of justice to manifest his responsibility toward the rule of law and democracy by altering his ways, and if this is not possible for him to do - then he should resign."

A statement from Friedmann's office said that "there is a concerted wave of attacks against Minister Friedmann, and this is only part of it."

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1.	Friedman an extremely successful justice minister	05:26	\|	Yaacov	10/08/07

2.	TopJurists	05:29	\|	A.Kleiman	10/08/07

3.	Friedmann needs to ride out the Stalinist wave	05:38	\|	Mordechai Shulman	10/08/07

4.	Is American-type justice what we need here?!	07:10	\|	Esther	10/08/07

5.	For Mordechai Shulman #3	07:21	\|	Esther	10/08/07

6.	The People Stand WIth Friedman	07:22	\|	Ben Israel	10/08/07

7.	#1 "the whole world is aware" ?	08:11	\|	redmike	10/08/07

8.	Severe and irreparable damage	08:35	\|	Moshe	10/08/07

9.	to Mike-- #1 "the whole world is aware" ?	09:40	\|	simon	10/08/07

10.	They are no longer candidates!	12:29	\|	Zvi	10/08/07

11.	They are no longer candidates!	12:39	\|	Zvi	10/08/07

12.	How funny, to cry for	15:55	\|	Bozaglow	10/08/07

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