After a postponement and delay in the shadow of last week's horrific terrorist attack on Ali, the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee, headed by MK Simcha Rotman, will convene tomorrow (Sunday) and renew for the first time discussions on the legal reform in the new format announced by the coalition leaders.
The first law that will be advanced in the committee's deliberations, with the main goal of passing it by the end of the summer conference, which will end at the end of July, is to reduce the grounds of reasonableness. This is an amendment to the Basic Law on Judiciary, which will stipulate that judges will not be able to invalidate a law on the grounds of unreasonableness. In effect, the law includes every decision made by the government and ministers, including decisions of ministerial committees, decisions of government policy, appointments made by the government, including ministerial appointments such as Deri and appointments of senior civil service officials.
MK Rotman at the Constitution Committee, photo: Oren Ben Hakon
The ground of reasonableness is in fact a ground for judicial review that developed in judicial rulings over the years and was not anchored in legislation and has its roots in English law, from which Israeli law was also affected. This is a ground used by judges to exercise judicial review of decisions by administrative authorities such as government and public servants, on the grounds that they were made with extreme unreasonableness and that the action was unreasonable.
The wording of the likelihood amendment that will be brought to the hearing tomorrow is: "Notwithstanding the provisions of this Basic Law, anyone who has jurisdiction by law, including the Supreme Court, shall not hear or issue an order against the government, the prime minister, a minister, or any other elected official as determined by law regarding the reasonableness of their decision."
The coalition has not yet decided whether the grounds for reasonableness will also be overturned by a decision by elected officials in local authorities. Rothman intends to discuss the question of what constitutes "another elected official" other than ministers and the prime minister who appears in the text of the law.
Demonstrators interrupt remarks made by Constitution Committee Chairman Simcha Rotman at the "Besheva" conference // Photo: Student protest
The coalition did not set a deadline for the pace of the initial discussions, but said it was a relatively simple law so it would not require much discussion. The Constitutional Committee is expected to meet this week on Monday and Tuesday to advance the grounds of reasonableness. The opposition, of course, will try to delay the legislation by stubbornly opposing committee hearings.
Attorney General Baharav-Miara opposes reducing the reasonableness cause, and in an opinion she submitted to Levin in the past on the reform, it was written regarding the cancellation of the reasonableness grounds for government decisions: "The citizen will no longer have a remedy to prevent the violation of himself and his rights as a result of making an extremely unreasonable decision, all on a daily basis. Nor will it be possible to conduct a judicial review of situations in which an extremely unreasonable decision would harm the integrity of the administration's activity or the integrity of the public service."
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