Haim Cohn Chair in Human Rights - Report of May 1999

During the 1996-1999 report period I continued to teach, do research, and actively participate in related activities. I continue to serve as President of the Association for Civil Rights in Israel (my term comes to an end September 1999), and, until I left for a sabbatical as a visiting fellow in the Rockefeller Center for Human Values at Princeton University, I continued to serve as Chair of the Academic Committee of the Human Rights Center at the Hebrew University, and a member of the board of the Center.  In July 1997, I won the Zeltner Prize for legal scholarship.

In December 1998, I was elected a member of the International Comission of Human Rights. In 1996-1997, I was a member of a public committee (chair: H. Zadok) that examined the laws relating to the press, and the committee's report was submitted in 1997. In 1997-1998, I was a member of a public committee (chair: former Chief Justice Meir Shamgar) to examine the role of the Attorney-General and Procedure for Election. The report of the committee was submitted in the summer of 1998. Since July 1997, I have been a senior fellow of the Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), working on a project called "A Social contract for Israel," dealing with Israel’s major rifts and ways of dealing with them. Within the IDI, I was also involved, during 1997-1998, in a group devoted to dialogue between secular and religious Jews, led by Meir Shamgar. Finally, during 1997-1998 I participated in two Jewish-Arab groups that have met regularly. The first deals with options for Jewish-Arab relations; a booklet describing the research was published in 1998. The second involved discussion of various aspects of Jewish-Arab relations in Israel, and a book of the papers submitted is forthcoming in 1999.

Conferences and Panels

During this period I have participated in a number of conferences and panels devoted to related subjects:

    1.    February 25, 1997: A panel discussion in Jerusalem on the limits of the duty to obey the law.

    2.    February 27, 1997: A public discussion of Israel’s Constitutional law with Justices Barak and Zamir and Professor Kretzmer.

    3.    March 18, 1997, on receiving the Zeltner Prize for Research in Law: a public lecture on The Relationships of Lawyers to the Struggle for Human Rights.

    4.    March 25, 1997: A panel discussing issues stemming from Dan Rabinowitz’s book Over Looking Nathereth (Jewish-Arab relations in Nazareth).

    5.    May 6, 1997: An international conference of Israeli and Italian lawyers on Constitutions and Adjudication.

    6.    June 2-4, 1997: An international conference on Rights and Courts at Tel-Aviv University, commenting on papers concerning group rights and the role of courts in protecting rights.

    7.    June 9th, 1997: An international conference organized by the Human Rights Center on the role of NGOs in the protection of rights.

    8.    June 20-22, 1997: An international conference on cause lawyering in Jerusalem, where I presented a paper on the complexities of roles (academics vs. activists) in cause lawyering.

    9.    August 1, 1997: A panel discussion in the International Congress for Jewish Studies, with A. Barak, M. Elon, A. Ravitzky and Sh. Avineri, on Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State.

  10.  September 11-13, 1997: An Arena workshop in Oslo, dealing with various aspects of notions of citizenship in modern states.

  11.  September 19-21, 1997: A conference on Oliver W. Holmes at the University of Boston, where I presented a paper about Holmes’ legacy.

  12.  November 9, 1997: A panel discussion about education to democracy in the wake of Rabin’s murder.

  13.  December 8, 1997: A lecture on the constitutional revolution, an International Austria-Israel Judicial Conference.

  14.  December 16, 1997: IDI, discussion of relations between Army and Civil Society.

  15.  January 20, 1998: A lecture to the School of Educational Leadership on Law and Society.

  16.  January 27, 1998: A lecture to principals and teachers on Human Rights and Human Dignity.

  17.   January 27, 1998: A lecture to officers of Central Command on Israel as a Jewish and Democratic state.

  18.  February 11, 1998: IDI: A round-table discussion on affirmative action.

  19.  February 21, 1998: A talk to the conservative congregation of Mevakshei Derech on Human Rights in Israel.

  20.  March 4, 1998: A talk to representatives of the Presidents’ Committee on Democracy in Israel.

  21.  March 4-7, 1998: An international Israeli-Arab dialogue group meeting in Cypress.

  22.  March 24, 1998: IDI: A round-table discussion of poverty in Israel.

  23.  April 2, 1998: ACRI: A public discussion of The Illegality of Holding People as Hostages (in the wake of a Supreme Court decision).

  24.  April 19-21, 1998: International conference on 50 Years to Israel: Hebrew tradition in the Law, University of Chicago.

  25.  May 5, 1998: The Aharon Katzir Lecture: The Impact of the Constitutional revolution on the Protection of Human Rights, University of Tel-Aviv.

  26.  June 4, 1998: IDI: Discussion of a Constitution for Israel.

  27.  June 9-11, 1998: International Conference, Bar-Ilan University, Democracy in multicultural societies.

  28.  June 10, 1998: Public discussion of the research on Options for Jewish-Arab Relations in Israel, University of Haifa.

  29.  June 16, 1998: IDI: Led a round-table discussion of reform in the courts.

  30.  June 29-30, 1998: Isr. L. Rev International conference on the Role of Courts in Democracies, Jerusalem.

  31.  July 1, 1998: Led ACRI’s press conference presenting its 1998 Annual Report.

  32.  July 2, 1998: Talked about human rights activists at ACRI annual meeting, Tel-Aviv.

  33.  July 20-22, 1998: ICJ triennial meeting, Cape Town, South Africa.

  34.  November 13-14, 1998: Workshop on supererogation, Penn Law School, Phil.

  35.  December 2, 1998: Human rights in Israel, the Department of Near Eastern Studies, Princeton.

  36.  December 3, 1998: Constitutionalism in Israel, in a seminar led by Professors Henkin and Dorf, Columbia University.

  37.  February 4, 1998: Ethics and Public Affairs Lecture, Princeton Center for Human Values: Can Israel Be Both Jewish and Democratic?

  38.  February 10, 1998: Stanford University, Law School, Public Lecture: Can Separate Be Equal?

  39.  February 11, 1998: Stanford University, The Global Law Program: Challenges for Human Rights in an Age of Globalization.

Media

Throughout this period, I expressed views on related subjects in the Israeli media. I publish regularly on these issues in the national press (formerly in Shishi and now in Yediot Aharonot), and I am a frequent speaker on radio and national TV.

Teaching

During the 1996-1997 academic year, I continued to teach the seminar on Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State. I taught an additional seminar on the Role of the Court and the Doctrine of the Binding Precedent, and I gave a course with Prof. S.N. Eisenstadt on Democracy and Citizenship in Multicultural Societies.

In 1997-98, I taught the basic mandatory 4^th-year course on Law and Society, gave for the last time my seminar on Israel as a Jewish and Democratic State, and gave an additional seminar on Law and Politics.

I am spending the 1998-1999 academic year at Princeton University, as a Visiting Fellow in the Center for Human Values, working on Equality in Rifted Societies: Can Separate be Equal?

Recent Publications

Books:

  1.  The Constitutional Revolution: A Reality or a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy? 1998 (Hebrew).

  2.  Israel: A Jewish and Democratic State, Van Leer and Hakibbutz Hameuhad, 1999 (Hebrew).

  3.  (With M. Kremnitzer and Y. Dotan), The Role of The Supreme Court in Israeli Society, Magnes Press, 1999 (Hebrew).

  4.  "(Public) Law and (Private?) Religion," in John Tasioulas (ed), Laws, Values and Social Practices, Dartmouth, 165-190, 1997.

  5.  "The Constitutional Revolution: Not A Reality But an Attempt At Self-Fulfilling Prophecy" 1977, 28 Mishpatim 23-147 (Hebrew).

  6.  "Silencing Speech and the Limits of Law," R. Post (ed) Censorship and Silencing: Practices of Cultural Regulation (1998).

  7.  “Israel as a Jewish and Democractic State: Challenges and Prospects,” in Mautner et al. (eds.) Multiculturalism in a Jewish and Democratic State: A Book In Honor of Ariel Rosen-Zvi, pp. 213- 278, Ramot, 1998 (Hebrew).

  8.  "Holmes’ Heritage: Living Greatly in the Law ," B.U.L.Rev. 78, pp. 843-883, 1998.

  9.  “A Constitutional Revolution?” in Gambaro A., Rabello A.M. (eds.) Toward a New European Ius Commune, Jerusalem, 1998.

10.  (With Issam Abu-Riya), “The Jewish-Arab Cleavage in Israel: Characteristics and Challenges,” IDI, 1999 (Hebrew).

Forthcoming Publications:

  1.  Law and Politics, Magnes Press, 2000 (Hebrew).

  2.  “Jewish and Democratic? A Rejoinder to the Ethnic Democracy Debate,” 3 Israel Studies, 1999.

  3.  “The Role of Courts in Rifted Democracies,” 33 Isr. L. Rev., 1999.

  4.  “Does Equality Require Integration? The Jaffa School Case,” a policy paper, The Center of Study of Arab Society, Beit Berl, 1999 (Hebrew).

  5.  “Does Equality Require Integration: A Case Study” (an expanded and modified version of 4) Tarbut Demokratit, 1999.