Dorit Beinish
Photo: Gil Yohanan
Beinish to introduce appellate court bid
Supreme Court president to present peers with plan for new judicial instance within days. Though meant to simplify appellate process, initiative set to encounter broad opposition within judicial system
Supreme Court President Dorit Beinish is set to present the presidents of circuit courts with her plan to establish an appellate court in Israel.
According to the plan, the court would be the appellate instance between the district court and the Supreme Court, and would hear appeals on district court rulings, thus enabling the Supreme Court more free time to sit as the High Court of Justice and hear constitutional cases.
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Beinish has been pushing the appellate court initiative since she took office in September of 2006. However, her frequent strifes with Justice Minister Daniel Friedmann have delayed it.
Beinish would like to see the appellate court have eight to 10 judges: "It is unreasonable for the Supreme Court to hear thousands of cases," she said in a recent lecture. "The citizens would be better served by an appellate instance which would be able to allot them more judicial time."
Best laid plans
Past attempts to form an appellate court in Israel have failed, mostly due to fierce objections by District Court judges, who are unlikely to lend their support to the move in its latest reincarnation.
An appellate court, they claim, would only create more red tape and complicate and already complex system. "Experience has proven that you create a court with the hopes of simplifying the process, but you end up making it even more complicated," said one judge.
Today, added the source, "a person thinks twice before filing an appeal with the Supreme Court, but if there is an appellate court, it would be flooded… Israel is a small country and we don’t need another court.
"The appellate court would turn the Supreme Court into the constitutional court, without calling it that. If they (Beinish) want to lighten the load, they should appoint more judges, or create an appellate division within the courts."
Opposition aside, Beinish seems adamant to present her plan before the new justice minister – who ever it may be after February's general election.
Nevertheless, her plan is expected to encounter opposition within the Knesset as well, as the House is often wary of any Supreme Court initiatives, which may turn it – inadvertently or otherwise – into the constitutional court.
