Israel

The Status of International law in the Domestic Legal System Introduction: The Constitutional and Legal System of Israel It is impossible to discuss the role of international law in the jurisprudence of Israel's courts without some understanding of the country's constitutional and legal system. This introduction will be devoted to a short description of that system. Israel's Declaration of Independence of 14 May 1948, stated that the new state, established as the state of the Jewish people, would have a formal constitution to be drawn up by an elected constituent assembly. This reflected the demands of the international community, which in UN General Assembly Resolution 181 on the partition of Palestine and the establishment there of two states – a Jewish state and an Arab state – had demanded that the states each have a formal constitution that would protect the rights of minorities. It did not, however, reflect a real commitment of the dominant political parties at the time of independence. A constituent assembly was indeed elected, but it transformed itself into the Knesset, Israel's Parliament, and the adoption of a formal constitution was postponed. Under a Knesset resolution adopted in 1950, the formal constitution was to be drawn up in a piecemeal fashion. A series of Basic Laws were to be adopted, and when these were complete, they would become the country's formal constitution.