NCJ Number
125168
Journal
Temple Law Review Volume: 62 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1989) Pages: 1175-1210
Date Published
1989
Length
36 pages
Annotation
This article focuses upon changes in the Israeli legal system in the area of procedure and evidence rules and in the more general realm of the impact of the constitutional process on the formulation of individual rights.
Abstract
The basic approach of Israeli law remains an adversary and accusative system. The last two decades, however, have witnessed changes that warrant examination as to their effects upon the rules of evidence and criminal procedure. The changes in criminal litigation have seen the reduction in some traditional rights of the defendant and the granting of new procedural tools for the prosecution in easing the task of proving the defendant's guilt. Another change has been the relative weight and importance given in judicial decisions to the inquisitional pretrial process and to the trial proceeding dominated by the adversarial process. As a result of these developments, the defendant's status under Israeli law has worsened. Most of the changes derive from new social perspectives of the appropriate methods for contending with crime and from a change in the perception of the judicial role and the judge's part in the truth-seeking process. 170 notes.