Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy

Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy
פורום המרצים למשפטים למען הדמוקרטיה
Formation2023; 1 year ago (2023)
FounderIttai Bar-Siman-Tov, Eliav Lieblich, Ronit Levine-Schnur
Founded at Israel
PurposeAdvocate for democracy and judicial independence
AffiliationsBasha'ar

The Israeli Law Professors' Forum for Democracy is a voluntary, non-affiliated and independent group of about 140 permanent faculty members in the law faculties of academic institutions in Israel. The Forum was founded in 2023, in response to the 2023 Israeli judicial reform. The Forum opposes this plan, and advocates the maintenance of a robust separation of powers with sustainable checks and balances.

The Forum actively opposes initiatives and actions aimed at abolishing the independence of the judiciary and subordinating it to the government and to partisan political considerations of the executive branch, as well as initiatives aimed at limiting democratic institutions, equal and free elections, the right to equality, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, and other human rights.

The main activity of the forum is authoring and publishing professional legal opinions, based on extensive legal research. By the summer 2023, the Forum had published over 50 position papers on various issues, such as the unreasonableness amendment, judicial independence, judicial appointments, and more. Extracts of the papers are published in Arabic,[1] English,[2] French,[3] and Russian.[4]

The Forum is assisted by "Basha'ar", an organization of senior Israeli academics, for administrative and financial support, while maintaining full independence.[5]

  1. ^ "عربي". Forum for Democracy.
  2. ^ "English". Forum for Democracy.
  3. ^ "français". Forum for Democracy.
  4. ^ "русский". Forum for Democracy.
  5. ^ "פורום המרצות והמרצים למשפטים למען הדמוקרטיה". Retrieved 17 August 2023.