The Status of the Israeli Constitution at the Present Time

Until recently, there was general agreement that Israel was one of the few nations in the contemporary world without a formal written, integrated constitution. The eleven Basic Laws enacted by the parliament were not seen as superior, fundamental laws restricting the authority of the sovereign Knesset. At most, they were seen as self-restricting Knesset enactments. Then in 1995, the Israeli Supreme Court held that it would henceforth consider the Basic Laws as Israel's constitution, and that the justices would exercise a judicial review power akin to that of the United States Supreme Court. Israel appears to be the only country with a written constitution promulgated by its judiciary. But not all Israelis have accepted the judicially promulgated constitution.

This article assesses the uniqueness of the Israeli situation. It first discusses the functions of written constitutions and why such documents have become part of what it means to be an independent nation in the contemporary world. It then discusses the special role of written constitutions in democracies and the various ways democracies have adopted constitutions. Against that background, the discussion turns to recent actions by the Supreme Court in the context of current Israeli politics to explain why the legitimacy of the constitution is still problematic.