Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Postcard from Jerusalem
Maimon Schwarzschild
I'm in Jerusalem for a conference at the Hebrew University Law School on judicial independence and international courts. True to my Right Coast roots, I seem to be the most sceptical participant: both about the creeping (or galloping) judicialization of international politics and about the very possibility of "judicial independence" on international courts, when most of the judges come from dictatorships which have none-too-subtle ways of making sure their appointees follow the party line.
Meantime we visited the Israeli Supreme Court this afternoon: a graceful and aesthetic building in a country where you can't take those qualities for granted. I sat in on a criminal appeal: a Russian immigrant who got into a drunken fight and badly injured his "opponent" and got a long prison sentence from the trial court. There was a panel of three Supreme Court Justices: an Orthodox Jew (with skullcap), a secular Jew (no skullcap), and an Israeli Arab. The Justices spent nearly an hour questioning the prisoner - who was present in the dock - about what happened. It was all through an interpreter, of course, since the prisoner spoke only Russian. There was something especially touching about the Israeli Arab Justice courteously putting questions in Hebrew to this very rough-looking Russian customer.
https://rightcoast.typepad.com/rightcoast/2007/06/postcard-from-j.html
Comments
Interesting. So are most of the Israeli participants trusting of, and in favor of greater power for, international courts? And are they in favor of Israel withdrawing to its pre-1948 boundaries, if an international court so decrees?
Posted by: cal85 | Jul 1, 2007 4:45:00 PM
Russian immigrant who got into a drunken fight and badly injured his "opponent" and got a long prison sentence from the trial court.
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This reminds me of Maxim Gorki's comment- The two most beautiful words in the English Language are "not guilty".
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Russian immigrant who got into a drunken fight and badly injured his "opponent" and got a long prison sentence from the trial court.
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This reminds me of Maxim Gorki's comment- The two most beautiful words in the English Language are "not guilty".
This is not an experience the Russian jew would be having in Russia.
Posted by: james wilson | Jun 28, 2007 9:13:49 AM