Basic Laws (Introduction)
The Basic Laws comprise the closest thing Israel has to a constitution. They are the basic documents from which the Constitutional Committee works and which it seeks to amend, expand, alter, and add to in order to form the proposed constitution. When, in 1949, the Constituent Assembly failed to produce a constitution, it ordered the newly founded Constitution, Law, and Justice Committee of the Knesset to approach the task piecemeal. Write a series of Basic Laws, the Harari Decision suggested, and when you are finished, compile them together into a constitution. To this day eleven Basic Laws have been adopted by the Knesset. The first nine deal largely with the institutions of government; the two most recent (Human Dignity and Liberty and Freedom of Occupation) deal with human rights. The Basic Laws were intended from the start to cover the most fundamental aspects of the state; but their legal status was unclear, and it was not until 1995 that they attained legal supremacy over ordinary legislation. (See related articles on the history of the constitution project in Israel and the Constitutional Revolution). The text of the Basic Laws in English is included here:
Translations are courtesy of the Knesset and of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and should not be considered official. The most recent amendments have been translated by the professional team of the Constitution for Israel project in the Knesset. (For official translations, see the Knesset website at www.knesset.gov.il; the English text there is, however, out of date).
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