In this Book
- Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel
- Book
- 2008
- Published by: State University of New York Press
- Series: SUNY series in Israeli Studies
summary
Uses the case of Israel to examine the circumstances that lead national courts to engage heated political issues. Patricia J. Woods examines a controversial issue in the politics of many countries around the world: the increasing role that courts and justices have played in deeply charged political battles. Through an extensive case study of the religious-secular conflict in Israel, she argues that the most important determining factor explaining when, why, and how national courts enter into the world of divisive politics is found in the intellectual or judicial communities with whom justices live, work, and think about the law on a daily basis. The interaction among members of this community, Woods maintains, is an organic, sociological process of intellectual exchange that over time culminates in new legal norms that may, through court cases, become binding legal principles. Given the right conditions—electoral democracy, basic judicial independence, and some institutional constraints—courts may use these new legal norms as the basis for a jurisprudence that justifies hearing controversial cases and allows for creative answers to major issues of national political contention.
Table of Contents
Download Full Book
- Front Matter
- Table of Contents
- p. vii
- Illustrations
- p. ix
- Introduction
- pp. xi-xxiii
- Content
- 3 The Irony of State Incorporation
- pp. 59-94
- Back Matter
- Bibliography
- pp. 213-238
Additional Information
ISBN
9780791478691
MARC Record
OCLC
243862796
Pages
268
Launched on MUSE
2012-01-01
Language
English
Open Access
No