Newly-Appointed Justice Minister Lays Out His Vision

[admin]

It seems as if Smolmert's new appointee is fighting the Bolshevik system. He seems to be for the court system how Bibi is for finance.

Any thoughts?

Newly-Appointed Justice Minister Lays Out His Vision
21:20 Feb 12, '07 / 24 Shevat 5767
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
 

Newly appointed Justice Minister Prof. Daniel Friedmann laid out his plans for reforming the Israeli judiciary and state bureaucracy. 


In a speech on Sunday evening, Prof. Friedmann explained to reporters his intentions to use the position given him to promote reforms in both the court system and governmental bureaucracy. The goal is to ease the encounter between citizen and state.

Among other ideas, Friedmann plans to promote a new municipalities law, and a law "for fighting bureaucracy."

"I have some general thoughts that need to be examined," Friedmann said. "For instance, in certain situations, if an answer is not given in time by the governmental authority, it [could] be considered to be an affirmative answer."

In addition, Friedmann said that he intends to promote new laws determining the rights of immigrants from the CIS and other minority groups. Saying that the proposed laws will promote "human rights," Friedmann intends to coordinate the reforms with the Ministry of the Interior.

Minister Friedmann also intends to push forward reforms in the court system, particularly in strengthening the nation's lower courts. "These courts bear most of the burden of service to the citizen," Friedmann explained. "These courts are under an almost unbearable caseload, and I will do all I can to strengthen them."

To that end, Friedmann revealed, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has promised to enable the creation of additional positions for judges whose sole job will be to preside over cases involving organized crime and other serious offenses. Olmert also offered his support for appointing specialized prosecutors for such cases. During the pilot phase of the new system, a panel of judges will hold sessions on these cases on a daily basis, in order to complete them as quickly as possible.

Regarding sentencing, Minister Friedmann is of the opinion that the courts behave in too random a fashion. To address this issue, Friedmann will advance a bill, first introduced by Minister Tzipi Livni, that sets sentencing criteria for the courts. Friedmann said, "Judges would retain their decision-making prerogative, but there will be guidelines from which to start." The minister said he thinks it is important to differentiate between a "professional criminal" and one who is convicted for the first time and "deserves a second chance."

On Monday, Minister Friedmann will meet Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch for the first time since taking office. The two are considered to be bitter rivals, with Friedmann having published scathing articles against Beinisch as recently as this month.

Last week, Minister Friedmann named retired Judge Boaz Okon to be the director of the Justice Ministry. Okon is also considered a strong rival of Chief Justice Beinisch, who demanded that Okon be removed from his post as Courts Administrator when she took office several months ago. While then-Minister of Justice Chaim Ramon refused to comply with Beinisch's directive, Okon went on to retire of his own accord.

Many in the legal community expect Friedmann and Okon to try and curtail the Supreme Court's authority through legislation.

Prof. Friedmann, a political outsider, is a winner of the Israel Prize, an expert in civil law, and an opponent of the judicial activism promoted by former Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak.