Israel · Constitution
Basic Laws of the State of Israel
There is no single written constitution. The Harari resolution of 1950 deferred one in favour of chapter-by-chapter Basic Laws, and thirteen have been enacted since 1958. Two of them — Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation, both 1992 — contain limitation clauses, and the Supreme Court held in Mizrahi Bank (1995) that they have supra-legislative force, inaugurating judicial review of primary legislation. Because most Basic Laws are amendable by ordinary majority, the boundary between constitutional and ordinary legislation is contested, and in 2024 the Supreme Court for the first time struck down an amendment to a Basic Law itself.
The constitutional text
There is no single written constitution. The Harari resolution of 1950 deferred one in favour of chapter-by-chapter Basic Laws, and thirteen have been enacted since 1958. Two of them — Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty and Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation, both 1992 — contain limitation clauses, and the Supreme Court held in Mizrahi Bank (1995) that they have supra-legislative force, inaugurating judicial review of primary legislation. Because most Basic Laws are amendable by ordinary majority, the boundary between constitutional and ordinary legislation is contested, and in 2024 the Supreme Court for the first time struck down an amendment to a Basic Law itself.
Separation of powers
Unitary, with municipalities and regional councils exercising delegated powers. Different legal regimes apply in the West Bank, where military orders and Jordanian-derived law operate alongside Israeli law applied personally to settlers, and the atlas records that separately under Palestine rather than folding it into this entry.
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