Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel

In Judicial Power and National Politics, 1999 IDRF Fellow Patricia J. Woods examines a controversial issue in the politics of many countries around the world: the increasing role that courts and justices have played in deeply charged political battles. Through an extensive case study of the religious-secular conflict in Israel, she argues that the most important determining factor explaining when, why, and how national courts enter into the world of divisive politics is found in the intellectual or judicial communities with whom justices live, work, and think about the law on a daily basis. Woods notes that the interaction among members of this community is an organic, sociological process of intellectual exchange that over time culminates in new legal norms that may, through court cases, become binding legal principles. Given the right conditions — electoral democracy, basic judicial independence, and some institutional constraints — courts may use these new legal norms as the basis for a jurisprudence that justifies hearing controversial cases and allows for creative answers to major issues of national political contention. Buy from Amazon

Published: SUNY Press, 2008

ISBN: 978-0791473993

Citation: Woods, Patricia, Judicial Power and National Politics: Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel (Albany: SUNY Press, 2008).