Basic Laws of Israel
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The Basic Laws of Israel function as Israel's "uncodified constitution".
The State of Israel has no formal constitution. Though its declaration of independence promised the constitution would be completed no later than October 1, 1948, the gap between religious and secular proved too difficult to bridge, and a full, unifying document was never produced. (Then-Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion discouraged the convention from completing their work on the constitution, saying Israel should wait until the bulk of Jews from aroud the world had moved to their homeland. Some historians claim, however, that Ben Gurion simply preferred to postpone any unnecessary checks on his power).
Many religious Jews at the time opposed the idea of their nation having a document which the government would regard as nominally "higher" in authority than religious texts such as the Torah, Tanakh, Talmud, and Shulkhan Arukh. Indeed, as late as the early 1990's, Shas leader Aryeh Deri famously declared that even if the Ten Commandments were presented to him as Israel's draft constitution, he would refuse to sign his name to them.
In 1949, the first Knesset came to what was called the Harari Decision. Rather than draft a full constitution immediately, they would postpone the work, charging the Knesset's Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee with drafting the document piecemeal. Each chapter would be called a Basic Law, and when all had been written they would be compiled into a complete constitution.
Thus, Israel has what is called an "unwritten constitution", in the form of the Basic Laws of Israel. The basic laws are various pieces of legislation from the Knesset that outline the nation's political structure.
Between 1958 and 1988 the Knesset passed nine Basic Laws, all of which pertained to the institutions of state. In 1992 it passed the first two Basic Laws which related to rights; an incomplete Bill of Rights, to be sure, but the basis of the Supreme Court's recently declared powers of Judicial Review. These are the Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, and Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation. These were passed by votes of 32-21 and 23-0, respectively.
List of Basic Laws of Israel
- Basic Law: The Knesset (1958)
- Basic Law: Israel Lands as Basic Law: The People's Lands (1960)
- Basic Law: The President of the State (1964)
- Basic Law: The Government (1968 - null)
- Basic Law: The State Economy (1975)
- Basic Law: The Army (1976)
- Basic Law: Jerusalem, the Capital of Israel (1980)
- Basic Law: The Judiciary (1984)
- Basic Law: The State Controller (1988)
- Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (1992)
- Basic Law: The Government (1992 - null)
- Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1992 - null)
- Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation (1994)
- Basic Law: The Government (2001)
