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Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg
Judicial Selection Committee
Photo: Ohad Zwigenberg

Justice's resignation may lead to larger Supreme Court

Yoram Danziger joins Zvi Zilbertal in retiring early. Despite his claim of 'personal reasons,' it is believed that he was motivated by the massive caseload. The minister of justice finds the current situation untenable.

The surprising retirement of Supreme Court Justice Yoram Danziger, five years before the designated end of his term, is expected to pave the way for increasing the number of Supreme Court justices to 17.

 

 

Danziger, who has been on the Supreme Court for nearly a decade, is retiring for "personal reasons," but legal sources claim that he is also retiring because of the heavy caseload on the Supreme Court, like Justice Zvi Zilbertal before him.

 

So far, the court's presidents have refused to increase the number of justices from 15 to 17 or 19. Their reasoning has been the fear that more justices would lead to politicians' trampling on the selection process for political agendas.

 

Justice Danziger (Photo: Gil Yohanan) (Photo: Gil Yohanan)
Justice Danziger (Photo: Gil Yohanan)

 

Many justices say behind closed doors that it is difficult for a mere 15 of them to deal with the 10,000 cases on which they must pronounce judgment each year, even though panels in individual cases can be composed by as few as three justices. Previous attempts by MKs to increase the size of the court were rejected by Supreme Court presidents, and the ministers of justice supported them to prevent clashes with the court.

 

The current minister, Ayelet Shaked (Bayit Yehudi) has said the current situation is untenable. She is the ex officio chairman of the Judicial Selection Committee, which holds the power to modify the number of justices without requiring any legislation.

 

The Israeli Bar Association released a statement in which it said that Danziger and Zilbertal's resignations, "alongside the heavy burden on the Supreme Court, necessitates consideration to find solutions to ease" the caseload, which it claims is "significantly higher relatively to many countries."

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.08.17, 09:38
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