At its first meeting on Thursday of the Judicial Selection Committee since the establishment of the government, the committee decided that in about three weeks it will hold a discussion on the appointment of a judge to the post of president of the Supreme Court and two additional Supreme Court justices. However, at this meeting there will be no vote to elect judges to the positions. It was also decided that the subcommittees of the committee would begin examining judges, and in February the first meeting would be held to select judges for magistrate and district courts.
For the first time since the previous government, Justice Minister Yariv Levin convened the Judicial Selection Committee today. The meeting of the committee follows petitions to the High Court of Justice demanding that the court order the committee to convene after the Minister of Justice refused to convene it without a new law that would regulate its work as part of the legal reform.
Yariv Levin, Photo: Alex Kolomoisky
Last night, the government appointed Minister Orit Struk as a committee member as a government representative. Today, the committee did not have the ability to appoint judges and staff the many standards that are missing in the judicial system, since before the selection of judges by the committee, their names must be published in the official records 45 days before the vote. The committee determined the composition of the subcommittees that will now begin examining magistrate and district court judges. A voting meeting will be held in February.
Unlike the appointment of judges, when appointing a president to the Supreme Court, there is no need to publish records, so theoretically the committee could vote tomorrow on the appointment of a judge to the position. However, Levin, who opposes the appointment, declared that any appointment to the committee would be by agreement only.
There is a legal dispute as to whether the committee members can force a vote on the identity of the Chief Justice, but it seems that from a legal point of view, only the chairman of the committee, who is the Minister of Justice, has the authority to determine the committee's deliberations.
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