Israel's Judicial Reform Protests Explained — Part 1: The Spark
Last month, protests in Israel challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposed judicial reforms reached a boiling point. On March 26, after weeks of mounting pressure, the Security Minister, Yoav Gallant, took to national news to announce his opposition to the ongoing legislation. He declared that the proposed changes posed a danger to Israel’s national security [...]
This article is the second in a series covering attacks on the rule of law. The rule of law is a political philosophy premised on the promise that all citizens, leaders, and institutions are accountable to the same laws, guaranteed through processes, practices, and norms that work together to support the equality of all citizens [...]
Pakistan’s Chief Justice Defies the Parliament to Retain Unregulated Discretion
In March, the Pakistan Parliament passed a bill to regulate the exclusive discretion of the Chief Justice (CJ) of the Supreme Court in initiating cases under suo motu jurisdiction and in making the Benches of Judges that hear cases. The bill also provides an intra-Court appellate review by a larger Bench. Before the bill could [...]
Explainer: How Afghanistan's Legislative Process Has Changed Under Taliban Rule
The Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) was established under the 2004 Constitution, which defined the powers and functions of the executive, judiciary, and legislative branches. Under it, the president was constitutionally considered the head of state with authority in the three branches mentioned above. As the head of state, the president had [...]
Israel dispatch: new Netanyahu government pursuing controversial legal and judicial reforms
Yael Iosilevich is a law student in the Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University and JURIST’s Staff Correspondent in Israel. Last Wednesday, 21st December, Benjamin “Bibi” Netanyahu officially informed Israel’s President that he had successfully formed a new government. Israel has lately suffered instability in both society and government: the recurring political turmoil [...]
Recent concerns about leaks of US Supreme Court decisions and Justice Clarence Thomas’s refusal to recuse himself in a case that might involve connections to his wife, Virginia Thomas, have spurred calls for a code of ethics for US Supreme Court justices. Although the Judicial Conference of the United States promulgated a Code of Conduct [...]
Sharon Basch is an Israeli American who spent the last two years living in Israel before starting her JD at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. Final results are in for Israel’s fifth election in nearly four years. Dreading another deadlock that would lead to more elections, voters came out in droves – the [...]
For nearly a century, many progressives have seen the Constitution, and especially the Supreme Court, as allies in the effort to make our political and economic life more democratic. For a long time, this trust seemed warranted. The initially reactionary New Deal Court came to embrace the power of the national government to limit corporate [...]
Canada prime minister nominates first indigenous justice to Supreme Court
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced the nomination of Ontario Superior Court of Justice Judge Michelle O’Bonsawin, to the nation’s highest court on Friday. O’Bonsawin, an Abenaki member of the Odanak First Nation, will be the first indigenous justice at the Supreme Court. This nomination would fill the vacancy to be created by the upcoming [...]
Rabia Shuja holds an LLM in International Human Rights Law from Griffith College, Dublin and is a Staff Correspondent for JURIST in Pakistan. She reports from Islamabad. Hello everyone, I am Rabia Shuja – JURIST’s new Pakistan Correspondent. I have the honour to be reporting on recent developments in my country. This first piece is [...]
