In Israel today there is increasingly vigorous support for the framing of a constitution. At the same time there is almost no recognition that in forty years Israel has acquired an almost complete set of basic laws that form a constitution. The aims of this volume are threefold: to inform the Israeli public and the world as to what exists and consider what still is needed in the way of a constitution; to enter constitutionalism firmly on the Israeli public agenda; and to learn from the American experience. The author shows that Israel's constitution is more than anything else a modern adaptation of an ancient constitution. Contents: Israel and Models of Modern Constitutionalism; The Politics of Constitution-Making in the United States and Israel; Issues of Constitutional Design: Civil Rights and Liberties; Issues of Constitutional Design: Interjurisdictional Relations; The State of Constitutionalism in the United States and Israel: Where Do We Go from Here?^R Co-publised with the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.
