Prominent law professors sign petition slamming justice min. - Haaretz

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Tue., August 14, 2007 Av 30, 5767

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		Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann. (Archives)

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Last update - 22:28 13/08/2007

Prominent law professors sign petition slamming justice min.

By Yuval Yoaz, Haaretz Correspondent

Twenty-two law professors from leading Israeli universities on Monday officially published a petition slamming Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann's recent reforms.

The petition was released soon after Friedmann decided on Monday to cancel a planned meeting with two of the signatories.

The meeting was called a few days ago by Friedmann in order to clarify issues that had raised the ire of the professors and led to the drafting of the petition, which is highly critical of the Justice Minister.

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Details of the petition were released last week. The document states, "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 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."

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."

In addition to the petition slamming Friedmann, a number of law professors on Monday released a statement in support of his actions.

The petition is very concise and contains basically one sentence. It states, "We, the undersigned professors of Law, request that the debate over the legal system be carried out in a practical manner without personal attacks, and we turn to Justice Minister Friedman to continue on his path to correct the deficiencies in the legal system and to strengthen the independence of judges."

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1.	Prof Friedmann	21:12	\|	Reuven	13/08/07

2.	The judges asked for it	21:36	\|	Gili	13/08/07

3.	Support Friedman reforms , High Court must not be Meretz branch	23:09	\|	Joseph E .	13/08/07

4.	Huh?	03:42	\|	Eli	14/08/07

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