NEW YORK SUN
Supreme Debate in Israel Over Whether Judges — or Elected Representatives — Echoes in the West
Conrad Black
February 25, 2023

It was my privilege to have a public discussion in Toronto this week with the eminent Israeli-American journalist Caroline Glick on the immense controversy now raging in Israel over the Israeli government’s radical proposals for reforming the judicial system. That debate raises questions that will have to be addressed by many countries, including Canada. In Israel, Canada, and elsewhere, there has been a great accretion in the power of the higher courts to curtail legislative and executive authority. Israel adopted in 1992 a new set of “Basic Laws,” which granted the Supreme Court the power of judicial review, vesting it with the authority to intervene in legislative and executive matters and impose the criterion, not just of apparent legality, but of conformity with the underlying ethos of Israel as “a Jewish and democratic state.” READ MORE