Judicial power and national politics : courts and gender in the religious-secular conflict in Israel / Patricia J. Woods.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Woods, Patricia J., 1967-

Series:

SUNY series in Israeli studies.

SUNY series in Israeli studies

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Israel. Bet ha-mishpaṭ ha-gavoha le-tsedeḳ.

Israel.

Political questions and judicial power--Israel.

Political questions and judicial power.

Judicial review--Israel.

Judicial review.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (269 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany, N.Y. : Suny Press, c2008.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Uses the case of Israel to examine the circumstances that lead national courts to engage heated political issues. Patricia J. Woods examines a controversial issue in the politics of many countries around the world: the increasing role that courts and justices have played in deeply charged political battles. Through an extensive case study of the religious-secular conflict in Israel, she argues that the most important determining factor explaining when, why, and how national courts enter into the world of divisive politics is found in the intellectual or judicial communities with whom justices live, work, and think about the law on a daily basis. The interaction among members of this community, Woods maintains, is an organic, sociological process of intellectual exchange that over time culminates in new legal norms that may, through court cases, become binding legal principles. Given the right conditions--electoral democracy, basic judicial independence, and some institutional constraints--courts may use these new legal norms as the basis for a jurisprudence that justifies hearing controversial cases and allows for creative answers to major issues of national political contention. Patricia J. Woods is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Florida.

Contents:

Judicial community, judicial power, and national politics

The Israel High Court of Justice and religious authorities

The irony of state incorporation

Social movement lawyers, judicial community, and the countermovement that binds them

Changing visions, conflicting missions : signaling the judicial community

Social movement and changing language of the court : implicit alliances and explicit coalitions.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-238) and index.

ISBN:

0-7914-7869-6

1-4356-6013-7

OCLC:

243862796