The Israeli Constitution
From Evolution to Revolution

Israeli constitutional law is a sphere of many contradictions and traditions. Growing out of British law absorbed by the legal system of Mandate Palestine, Israeli constitutional law has followed the path of constitutional law based on unwritten constitutional principles. This book evaluates the development of the Israeli constitution from an unwritten British-style body of law to the declaration of the Basic Laws as the de facto Israeli constitution by the supreme court and on through the present day. The book is divided into a chronological history, devoted to a description of the process of establishing a constitution; and a thematic one, devoted to the review and evaluation of major constitutional issues that are also the subject of discussion and research in other countries, with emphasis on the unique characteristics of the Israeli case.

Gideon Sapir is a professor of law at Bar-Ilan University, Israel; a senior fellow at the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University; and a senior fellow at the Kohelet think tank. He is also an ordained rabbi. He teaches and writes in the areas of constitutional law and constitutional theory.