Ministerial Emergency Powers Over Court Administration in the Israeli Judiciary

Abstract

This article focuses on the administration of courts in Israel during the Coronavirus Pandemic, and particularly on the emergency powers utilized by the Minister of Justice. The article points out that more attention must be granted to the confluence of two issues: emergency powers and court administration. While the literature on emergency powers has discussed at length the challenges inherent in maintaining the rule of law under extreme conditions, the literature on court administration has not shown as clear an awareness of the issue, even though it has extensively discussed the tensions intrinsic to executive control over court administration. This article points out, drawing on both of these theoretical discourses, that we must carefully structure emergency powers over the administration of courts taking care to maintain the realization of the principles of judicial independence and judicial accountability, which in emergencies necessitates a clear separation of the power to declare a state of emergency from the power to curtail court operations due to the emergency. Furthermore, we must also maintain transparency in the realization of these principles, which is almost as important as their actual realization in order to maintain public confidence in the courts.