Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People: Lessons for Particularistic and Universalistic Constitutional Legitimation

• Authors: Harel, Alon

Abstracts

EN

The ‘Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People,’ passed by the Knesset on July 19, 2018. This Article describes the main provisions of the Basic Law; it discusses some of the past history leading to the legislation. It also provides some evaluation as to its effects and speculations concerning its future. Last I use this basic law to make a broader point concerning constitutional legitimation. More specifically I argue that there are two ways to gain constitutional legitimacy: representational and reasons-based. While particularistic values such as the ones entrenched in the basic law gain legitimacy from representation, universalistic values need not rest on representation. I conclude by arguing that given the failure to gain consensual support for the basic law it is an illegitimate attempt to entrench particularistic values in a divisive society. It is only by representing the public as a whole that this law can gain constitutional legitimacy.

Keywords

EN

constitutional theory; Basic Laws of Israel; Israel as the Nation State of the Jewish People; representation; teoria konstytucyjna; Ustawa Zasadnicza Izraela; Izrael jako Państwo Żydowskie; reprezentacja

• Publisher: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
• Journal: Studia Iuridica
• Year: 2019
• Volume: 82
• Pages: 101-114

Dates

published

2020-03-08

Contributors

author

Harel, Alon

Identifiers

DOI

10.5604/01.3001.0013.9613