Event Details
Law and the Culture of Israel
Author: Menachem Mautner
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Place: Oxford
Pages: 270
ISBN: 9780199600564
Category: n\a
Description
Within a short span of time in the course of the 1980s, the Supreme Court of Israel effected far-reaching changes in its legal doctrine and in the way it perceives its role among the state's branches. This book locates those changes in the context of the great historical process that took shape in Israel in the second half of the 1970s: the decline of the political, social, and cultural hegemony of the labor movement, and the renewal of the struggle over the future orientation of the country's culture. Two social groups have confronted each other at the heart of this struggle: a secular group that is aiming to strengthen Israel's ties to Western liberalism, and a religious group intent on associating Israel's culture with traditional Jewish heritage and the Halakhah. The Supreme Court — the institution most closely identified with liberalism since the establishment of the state — collaborated with the former group in its struggle against the latter. The story of the Court serves as the axis of another two stories. The first deals with the struggle over the cultural identity of the Jewish people throughout the course of modernity. The second is the story of the struggle over the cultural identity of Israeli law, which took place throughout the 20th century. In addition to the divide between secular and religious Jews, there is a national divide in Israel between Jews and Arabs. These two divides are interrelated in complex ways which shape the unique traits of Israel's multicultural condition. The book ends with a few suggestions as to how, given this condition, Israel's regime, political culture and law should be constituted in the coming decades. The suggestions borrow from the discourses of liberalism, multiculturalism, and republicanism.
Table of contentsINTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 ZIONISM AND THE EVOLVING NEW CULTURE
CHAPTER 2 THE CULTURAL STRUGGLES OVER THE SHAPING OF THE LAW
CHAPTER 3 FROM JUDICIAL RESTRAINT TO JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
CHAPTER 4 THE DECLINE OF FORMALISM AND THE RISE OF VALUES
CHAPTER 5 FROM HEGEMONY TO WAR OF CULTURES
CHAPTER 6 THE SUPREME COURT AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM
CHAPTER 7 ISRAEL AS A MULTICULTURAL STATE
CHAPTER 8 LAW AND CULTURE IN THE COMING DECADES
CONCLUSION
Within a short span of time in the course of the 1980s, the Supreme Court of Israel effected far-reaching changes in its legal doctrine and in the way it perceives its role among the state's branches. This book locates those changes in the context of the great historical process that took shape in Israel in the second half of the 1970s: the decline of the political, social, and cultural hegemony of the labor movement, and the renewal of the struggle over the future orientation of the country's culture. Two social groups have confronted each other at the heart of this struggle: a secular group that is aiming to strengthen Israel's ties to Western liberalism, and a religious group intent on associating Israel's culture with traditional Jewish heritage and the Halakhah. The Supreme Court — the institution most closely identified with liberalism since the establishment of the state — collaborated with the former group in its struggle against the latter. The story of the Court serves as the axis of another two stories. The first deals with the struggle over the cultural identity of the Jewish people throughout the course of modernity. The second is the story of the struggle over the cultural identity of Israeli law, which took place throughout the 20th century. In addition to the divide between secular and religious Jews, there is a national divide in Israel between Jews and Arabs. These two divides are interrelated in complex ways which shape the unique traits of Israel's multicultural condition. The book ends with a few suggestions as to how, given this condition, Israel's regime, political culture and law should be constituted in the coming decades. The suggestions borrow from the discourses of liberalism, multiculturalism, and republicanism.
Table of contentsINTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 1 ZIONISM AND THE EVOLVING NEW CULTURE
CHAPTER 2 THE CULTURAL STRUGGLES OVER THE SHAPING OF THE LAW
CHAPTER 3 FROM JUDICIAL RESTRAINT TO JUDICIAL ACTIVISM
CHAPTER 4 THE DECLINE OF FORMALISM AND THE RISE OF VALUES
CHAPTER 5 FROM HEGEMONY TO WAR OF CULTURES
CHAPTER 6 THE SUPREME COURT AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM
CHAPTER 7 ISRAEL AS A MULTICULTURAL STATE
CHAPTER 8 LAW AND CULTURE IN THE COMING DECADES
CONCLUSION
Highlights
