IsraCampus.Org.il

The new legislation harms not only or mainly the rule of law, but law itself - the law of a country, as distinct from power that depends on brute force. Theoreticians of jurisprudence have pondered at length the difference between a robber who takes money at gunpoint and a tax official who has the police, prisons and legal system behind him. These thinkers say the law, unlike a robber's threats, is an expression of a political entity's collective will, and obedience to the law typically expresses the desire or obligation to be part of the political community.

...

The Knesset has declared war not only or mainly on these NGOs, and not even on the rule of law, but on law itself. The legislature has chosen to use law not as a tool to realize policy, but to tyrannize the people. The logic guiding this behavior is not that of a tax collector, but of a robber. "I'm stronger so I'm taking your money." The death of law and its substitution by force should make human rights groups think twice about the way they conduct themselves in the future.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/the-death-of-law-in-israel-1.397385

The death of law in Israel
The Knesset has declared war not only or mainly on these NGOs, and not even on the rule of law, but on law itself.

By Alon Harel
Published 24.11.11

The Knesset is at work on a variety of bills whose declared purpose is to hit at leftist NGOs, paralyze the courts and ensure - through legislation that criminalizes people and makes them pay damages - that the public discourse will be more Zionist, right wing and convenient for the authorities. Many people perceive these bills as a fatal blow against the rule of law.

The rule of law, they argue, is based on free public discourse, an independent judiciary and the protection of basic rights. Nothing, they say, can be further from free and democratic public discourse than the new legislation the Knesset is working on with energy and devotion that is entirely uncharacteristic of its efforts in other realms - social justice and economic growth, for example.

This argument is mistaken and misleading. The new legislation harms not only or mainly the rule of law, but law itself - the law of a country, as distinct from power that depends on brute force. Theoreticians of jurisprudence have pondered at length the difference between a robber who takes money at gunpoint and a tax official who has the police, prisons and legal system behind him. These thinkers say the law, unlike a robber's threats, is an expression of a political entity's collective will, and obedience to the law typically expresses the desire or obligation to be part of the political community.

The state demands obedience not because it is strong, but because it is right. And even when it is not right, citizens are called on not only to obey the law, but to respect it. The law is not only a prohibition behind which stand the police, courts and gallows; breaking it violates our mutual social and political obligations as citizens of a lawful state.

Of course, not everyone shares these sentiments. And even those who share them might violate them sometimes whether for convenience or ideology. But even criminals might harshly criticize violations of the law by others and regret their own violations.

When respect for the law is absent, the law stops functioning as law and becomes force. People might continue to obey it, but the obedience is fragile. Just like when a robber puts down his gun for a moment and the victim may be expected to run for his life, the citizen who sees the police officer and the judge as enemies and not partners will flee when he can and break the law.

So far, Israeli human rights groups have strictly observed the law and fought by legal means against what they perceive as injustices. The NGOs at the core of the debate have registered as nonprofit associations, revealed their records to the registrar of nonprofit associations, faithfully reported every donation and represented their positions in the courts.

The writer is a law professor at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.