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Foreword, Lester Brickman, Richard O. Lempert

Articles

The forword highlights the significant concern over unmet legal needs among low and middle-income populations, emphasizing the fragmented and inefficient state of research in this area. It argues that the lack of coordination among studies, inconsistent terminology, and duplication of efforts hinder progress. The authors propose a coordinated approach to identify research gaps, set priorities, and improve the delivery of legal services.

Bergman V. Minister Of Finance, Moshe Landau, Shimon Agranat, Yoel Sussman, Zvi Berinson, Eliyahu Manny

Translated Opinions

Section 4 of Basic Law: The Knesset, requires that elections to the Knesset shall be "general, nationwide, direct, equal, secret and proportional". Sections 4 and 46 of this Law require that any amendment to section 4 be approved by an absolute majority of the Knesset. In 1969, the Knesset passed a Law providing public financing of the election campaign for the seventh Knesset, scheduled to be held in 1970. According to the provisions of this Law, which was not passed by an absolute majority, such funding is granted solely to party factions which are represented in the outgoing Knesset.

The …

Association Of Engineers And Architects In Israel V. Minister Of Labor, Yoel Sussman, Yitzhak Kister, Eliyahu Manny

Translated Opinions

The Engineers and Architects Law, 1958, established a procedure for the registration of engineers and architects. It also provided that the Minister of Labour may frame regulations, after consulting with the Council of Engineering and Architecture, reserving certain activities to registered engineers and architects, which would have the effect of forbidding others with less training and experience from engaging in such activities. The Minister published such regulations, after due consultation, but postponed the date of their implementation several times. The Petitioners complain that such delay of the implementation of the regulations is unlawful.

The court issued an order nisi, directing …

Yeredor V. Chairman Of The Central Elections Committee For The Sixth Knesset, Haim Herman Cohn, Shimon Agranat, Yoel Sussman

Translated Opinions

The Central Elections Committee for the Sixth Knesset refused to confirm the “Socialists’ List” because “this list of candidates is unlawful as its initiators deny the territorial integrity of the State of Israel and its very existence.” The material that was before the Committee clearly reflected that most of the candidates on the relevant list were members of the “El Ard” movement whose purposes were described by the Israeli Supreme Court as completely and absolutely denying the existence of the State of Israel in general, and its existence within its borders in particular.

In denying the appeal, the Supreme Court …

Pardess Hana V. The Minister Of Agriculture, Zvi Berinson, Shimon Agranat, Eliyahu Manny, Moshe Silberg, Alfred Witkon

Translated Opinions

The petitioners (two of them suppliers of water and two consumers) complained that a scheme to mix the "sweet" water they were receiving at present with water from the National Water Carrier would increase the chlorine content, with deleterious effects on the plantations supplied with such water. More particularly they claimed inter alia that the demarcation by the Minister of water rationing areas was a distortion of his discretionary powers in that behalf, unnaturally combining regions wholly distinct hydrologically, and that the regulations made under the Law were too general and imprecise and left the final decision in important aspects …

Gharis V. Haifa District Commissioner, Alfred Witkon, Moshe Landau, Zvi Berinson

Translated Opinions

The Petitioner sent the Respondent (the Haifa District Commissioner) notice of the establishment of an association named “The El-Ard Movement”, as required under secs. 2 and 6 of the Ottoman Associations Law, 1909. In his reply, the Respondent noted that it was clear from the articles of association that the association was established with the intent to harm the State of Israel, and is therefore prohibited under sec. 3 of the aforesaid law. The Petitioner filed a petition with the High Court of Justice for an order nisi against the Respondent.

In denying the petition, the Supreme Court held:

A. …

Beth Hananya V. Freidman, Zvi Berinson, Eliyahu Manny, Shimon Agranat

Translated Opinions

At a general meeting of the appellant society a resolution was adopted amending a certain provision of its constitution. The respondents, members of the society, sought a declaration that the resolution was void because wives of members had voted thereon although not formally members themselves. The appellant pleaded that the wives had been duly admitted to membership, that it was customary, as throughout the settlement movement, for wives to become members and that the respondents were estopped from denying such membership. The District Court granted the declaration claimed.

Held, granting the appeal, that whilst normally a person did not become …

Kariti V. Attorney General, Zvi Berinson, Eliyahu Manny, Binyamin Halevy

Translated Opinions

The appellant was charged on five counts of incorrect capital and income returns over some three years. One count was struck out by mutual consent. He was convicted by the Magistrate's Court on two counts and acquitted of the remaining two. On appeal to the District Court he was acquitted of a further count. Affirmation of his conviction on the remaining count was vaguely attributed to one of two years or both of them and the charge was amended accordingly and in the result the struck out count was revived. The appellant pleaded on appeal that in convicting him the …

Stroul V. Attorney-General, Haim Herman Cohn, Yitzhak Olshan, Moshe Landau

Translated Opinions

The appellant, a qualified hospital laboratory technician, supplied blood for transfusion to a patient without making sure - by inspection of the label on the bottle containing the blood and carrying out certain prescribed tests - that the blood was compatible with that of the patient. The two were in fact not compatible and after being transfused with blood supplied the patient died. The appellant was convicted and sentenced in the Magistrate's Court and his appeal to the District Court failed. On appeal to the Supreme Court, two submissions in law were made: that the acts or omissions of the …

Shor V. State Of Israel, Moshe Silberg, Binyamin Halevi, Alfred Witkon

Translated Opinions

In April 1957, the appellant sued a police sergeant for damages for physical injuries he had caused her. That action was dismissed at first instance on the ground of lack of evidence, and the Court of Appeal refused to interfere with this decision. The appellant then began an action against the respondents as the employers of the sergeant, claiming vicarious liability, in respect of the same alleged injuries. An application by the respondents to dismiss the action in limine as res judicata was granted: hence this appeal.

Held. (1) The rule that a judgment as between A and B will …

Shmuel V. Attorney General, Moshe Landau, Alfred Witkon, Zvi Berinson, Shimon Agranat, Haim Herman Cohn

Translated Opinions

The Attorney-General applied for an order against the applicants to remove their children from a Christian missionary school where they had placed them and to arrange for the children's education in a Jewish school. In those proceedings in the Tel Aviv District Court, the applicants requested that the sitting judge should disqualify himself because he was an orthodox Jew and people might gain the impression that he would therefore not deal with the matter impartially. The judge refused to do so and the applicants moved the Supreme Court to have the hearings transferred to another judge of the Tel Aviv …

Berenblat V. Attorney General, Haim Herman Cohn, Moshe Landau, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

The appellant was convicted on five counts under the Nazi and Nazi Collaborators (Punishment) Law. 1950. On two of these counts he was convicted on the strength of the evidence of a single witness, found to be credible by the lower court. He appealed against conviction.

Held, granting the appeal, that in criminal matters, a court can convict on the evidence of a single witness without corroboration, after duly "cautioning" itself as to its credibility per se and considering its weight and relevance in the whole complex of evidence tendered by the prosecution with regard to the circumstances of the …

Basset V. Hapol Compulsory Insurance Ltd., Shimon Agranat, Zvi Berinson, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

The first appellant was involved in a traffic accident, for which he was partly responsible. as a result of which a number of persons were injured. The respondent, the insurer of the other vehicle, settled the claims of some of the injured in negotiations outside court, after having invited the appellants to join in the negotiations. The latter refused to do so nor did they make any contribution to the payments made by the respondent who sued for contribution. The appellant denied liability and applied for the action to be dismissed in limine for no cause of action.

Held. The …

State Of Israel V. Schwarz, Eliyahu Manny, Alfred Witkon, Shimon Agranat

Translated Opinions

Joseph Schwarz sued the State. the Governor of Shatta Prison and several warders for damages for injuries he had sustained from blows whilst under arrest and in prison. Against the State he claimed vicarious liability. In the District Court he was successful on the ground that the acts perpetrated were done by an organ of the State and impliedly with its permission. The State appealed.

Held: The State, like every other corporate body, may become vicariously liable in tort for the acts of its servants done in the course of their duties. It may also become liable by express authorization …

Attorney General V. Weigel, Zvi Berinson, Binyamin Halevy, Eliyahu Manny, Haim Herman Cohn, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

The respondent was convicted at first instance of being a procurer under section 1(b) of the Penal Law Amendment (Prostitution Offences) Law, 1962, but owing to the special circumstances of the case he was not given a prison sentence but put on probation. An appeal to the Supreme Court having failed, the Attorney-General applied for a Further Hearing* regarding the construction of the said section 10 in the light of section 3 (2) of the Probation of Offenders Ordinance, 1944. The sole issue was whether a person convicted under the Law must be sentenced to imprisonment or may instead be …

Attorney General V. Oestreicher, Shimon Agranat, Binyamin Halevy, Yoel Sussman

Translated Opinions

Facts: The respondent was charged with an offence against the Commodities and Services (Control) (Transport of Bread) Order, 1960, for transporting bread in open dirty boxes on the roof of an automobile. He admitted the facts but denied liability on the ground that the Order was ultra vires the Minister of Health who had issued it, according to the terms of the enabling Law, which confined the power to make Orders regarding specified essential matters and in a period only during which a state of emergency prevailed. At first instance this plea was rejected and he was convicted and sentenced, …

El-Zafdi V. Benjamin And Attorney General, Haim Herman Cohn, Moshe Silberg, Eliyahu Manny, Alfred Witkon, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

The child in this case was born to a Jewish mother and a Moslem father. According to Jewish law, the child was Jewish, following the mother, and according to Moslem law it was Moslem, following the father. On the death of the mother, the child was placed with its Moslem aunt, but when the father learned that German reparations were payable to the mother he applied to the District Court for the appointment of a maternal uncle as guardian. The Court appointed an uncle as sole guardian and at the instance of the Attorney-General ordered him to place the child …

Zim Israel Navigation Co. V. Maziar, Moshe Silberg, Moshe Landau, Alfred Witkon

Translated Opinions

During a voyage between Marseilles and Haifa, the respondent fell ill, apparently from food she had eaten on board, and for three months after arriving in Israel suffered from a stomach infection. She sued the ship owners and the ship's chef for negligence. The appellants pleaded in defence inter alia the exemption clause relieving them from liability which appeared in the passenger ticket sold to the respondent. The District Court found for the respondent on the ground that res ipsa loquitur and held that the exemption clause was null and void.

Held (per Silberg, J.): As between the English approach …

Dissenchick V. Attorney General, Yoel Sussman, Moshe Landau, Zvi Berinson

Translated Opinions

The trial of one Rafael Blitz for murder stretched over a number of days. On the second day. a newspaper (of which the first appellant was the editor and the second appellant the responsible journalist) published a report which indicated that in answer to the charge defence counsel had pleaded not guilty before the accused could say anything. In the body of the article it was reported that before trial the accused had in fact admitted his guilt to a journalist, although it was noted that such admission not having been made in court was not binding. The appellants were …

El-Saruji V. Minister Of Religious Affairs And The Moslem Council, Moshe Landau, Moshe Silberg, Zvi Berinson

Translated Opinions

The petitioners complained generally of the alleged interference of the Minister of Religious Affairs in matters affecting the Moslem Community of Acre and more particularly of the activities and powers of the local Moslem council appointed by the Ministry.

Held. The departure from the country of Moslem leaders and officials as a result of the events of 1948 had led to a complete collapse of all Moslem institutions and their ceasing to function. In order to remedy the situation and recreate these institutions the Ministry had not proceeded under any express statutory provision but by virtue of general power vested …

Abudi V. Minister Of Religion, Moshe Silberg, Alfred Witkon, Haim Herman Cohn

Translated Opinions

Upon the death of Chief Rabbi Herzog, an Election Committee of eight members was nominated under the Regulations to appoint and convene an Electoral Assembly. Half of the Committee was nominated by the Rabbinical Council in January 1960 and half by the Minister of Religions in June 1960. The first meeting of the Committee was convened by the Minister in July 1960, notwithstanding the claim of the Rabbinical Council that the invitation should be a joint one. In consequence, the four Council members refused to attend but subsequently one of them, Rabbi Abu Revia, relented. Thereupon the other three tendered …

Diab V. Attorney General, Moshe Silberg, Moshe Smoira, Alfred Witkon

Translated Opinions

The appellant was charged and convicted under section 53(a) of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 19361), with promoting civil war in that being a resident of Israel, he left the country, enlisted in an Arab "army" and served in it against Israel during the Arab-Israel War. The appellant contended that the acts with which he was charged did not constitute the offence described in the section which refers only to a civil war in the sense of a fight between residents within the State.

Held: That although the war in which the appellant had participated was not a civil war, and …

Attorney General V. Dizengoff & Co., Ltd., Zvi Berinson, David Goitein, Moshe Landau

Translated Opinions

Three different rates of exchange were introduced as a result of the variation of the official rate of exchange of lsraeli currency in 1952. The rate applicable to shipping matters necessitated an increase in the charges for port services, including those for Israel shipping, in order to avoid the charge of discrimination in favour of such shipping. The excess earnings made by the port service companies in respect of Israel shipping was, at first by agreement and later by Order, made transferable to the Ministry of Finance. The respondent resisted this arrangement in respect of its own Israel ships and …

Lahisse V. Minister Of Defense, Shneor Zalman Cheshin, Moshe Silberg, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

An officer in the Israel Army was charged before a military court in Israel with murder, an offence under S. 214(b) of the Criminal Code Ordinance 1936 and section 97 of the Army Code 1948. The officer submitted that the military court had no jurisdiction inasmuch as the acts with which he was charged were alleged to have been committed in Hula, a village in Lebanon, and outside the borders of either Israel, or Palestine as constituted under the Mandate. This submission was rejected, but the case was stood over to allow him to petition the High Court on the …

Dan Bus Urban V. Yehiel, Yoel Sussman, Moshe Silberg, Yitzhak Olshan

Translated Opinions

A passenger bought at a reduced price a season-ticket good for 23 journeys on the omnibuses of the appellant cooperative. At the time of purchase of the ticket, the cost of a single fare was 55 prutot. Before the passenger had used up the whole of the ticket, the Ministry of Transport approved a rise in the fare from 55 prutot to 60 prutot. The appellant inserted a notice in the newspapers stating that tickets such as that held by the respondent would remain valid only until November 15, 1955. On the day following that date, November 16, 1955, the …

Ben Kosta V. Minister Of Interior, Yitzhak Olshan, Zvi Berinson, David Goitein

Translated Opinions

In 1955, the petitioner, a Christian, obtained a licence for the sale of pork under the then current bye-law. Consequent upon the enactment of a law enabling local authorities to prohibit or limit the sale of pork in the whole or part of their area as long as such prohibition or limitation were binding upoh the whole population of such area or part, a new bye-law was passed in 1957, containing penal provisions for offences thereunder committed within 42 days from its date, unless immediately prior thereto the sale of the pork was lawful under the law then in force. …

Weiss V. Inspector General, Moshe Landau, Yitzhak Olshan, Yoel Sussman

Translated Opinions

The petitioners were members of the Israel Police Force. They were sent to the "Gaza strip" when it was occupied by Israel armed forces after the Sinai Campaign to do normal police work there. In contravention of an order forbidding the purchase of goods, they bought nylon material, medicines, cameras and films. They were charged before a Court of Discipline which was set up under the Police Ordinance. The petitioners contended that the court had no jurisdiction to hear charges against them because, inter alia, the Police Ordinance only dealt and could only deal with offences committed in Israel and …

Malka V. Attorney General, Moshe Silberg, Zvi Berinson, David Goitein

Translated Opinions

On September 1, 1953, the appellant, who was driving a truck, knocked down a child of two years of age, Shimon Manan, causing a fracture of the arm. The child was taken to hospital where the doctors examined the arm, discovered the fracture, but also found that the fracture was a closed one so that the child's blood had not come in contact with the road. The doctors considered that there was, for this reason, no need to give the child an antitetanus injection, and that in fact it "might have been dangerous to do so. The child remained under …

Wolff-Bloch V. Jerusalem District Assessing Officer, Alfred Witkon, Yoel Sussman, Shneor Zalman Cheshin

Translated Opinions

The appellant, a dentist who had travelled to the U.S.A., and had spent 10 weeks there studying the latest developments in her profession, claimed the expenses so incurred by her as a deduction for purposes of income tax on the ground that they were incurred "in the production of income." The Assessing Officer refused to allow the deduction and this decision was upheld by the District Court.

Held, allowing an appeal (Cheshin D.P. dissenting), that the expenditure incurred by the appellant was incurred for the purpose of preserving "an existing asset" and could properly be deducted.

Mandelbrot V. Attorney General, Shimon Agranat, Moshe Silberg, David Goitein

Translated Opinions

The appellant was charged under section 214(b) of the Criminal Code Ordinance, 1936, with the murder of one Meir Shifman. He was employed at the Ata textile works in the north of Israel in the year 1951. On December 26, 1951, he went to work taking a loaded revolver with him. At 9.30 a.m. he went towards a fellow employee, with whom he had at one time been friendly, one Luba Kreiner, and fired two shots at her which struck her in the right arm. She tried to run away from the appellant, but tripped up and fell. Shifman, …