The horrific attack near the community of Ali, in which four Israelis were murdered, naturally changes the schedule planned by Knesset committees. The hearing scheduled for Wednesday on reducing the reasonableness grounds in the Constitutional Committee has been canceled.
A statement issued by the committee said that "due to the serious attack, and at the request of a large number of MKs and those invited to allow their participation in the funerals, the meeting of the Constitution Committee scheduled for tomorrow at 09:00 on the proposed Basic Law: Judiciary (Amendment – Grounds of Reasonableness) is canceled."
As you may recall, the coalition leaders decided to convene this week to promote the legal reform - on matters relating to the timeframe, wording and more. As planned, reducing the reasonableness grounds in Solberg's text will be promoted as a law of the Constitution Committee alongside the resumption of discussions in the committee ahead of its first reading.
Aharon Barak after Netanyahu's announcement: "Supports reducing the cause of reasonableness if it pleases Levin" // Credit: Go Live
At a cabinet meeting on Sunday, Netanyahu said that the coalition would advance measured amendments to the judicial system: In this context, the first step of the coalition is expected to be legislation to reduce the cause of reasonableness in a wording similar to what Justice Solberg proposed - with minor changes.
According to the emerging outline, the reasonableness grounds, according to which the High Court of Justice determines that decisions by the government and administrative authorities are extremely unreasonable, will be nullified on all government decisions and ministerial committees – including policy, appointments and appointments of ministers (such as the appointment of Deri), government decisions, legislation, and more.
A bill to reduce the cause of reasonableness is not yet drafted and therefore difficult to judge. The coalition intends to limit the High Court of Justice from using the reasonableness grounds in two ways: one, denying its use against government decisions and ministerial committees, and the other is denying the use of the grounds for disqualifying the appointment of ministers and senior civil service officials.
Netanyahu: "We will start advancing the legal reform" GPO
The ground of reasonableness, as its name implies, allows the court to intervene in the decisions of state authorities, if in the opinion of the court they are unreasonable. The reason for reasonableness came to Israeli law from British law, where the Wensbury ruling held that the court may invalidate a decision of the state authorities only if it is completely unfounded, and the evidence must be "overwhelming."
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