Attorney General of Israel

The Attorney General of Israel ( _he. היועץ המשפטי לממשלה, "HaYoetz HaMishpati LaMemshala", lit. "The Legal Advisor to the Government") stands at the head of the legal system of the executive authority and of the public legal service, and in the force of that duty he is responsible for the protection of the rule of law in the essential-moral meaning in the State of Israel and of the public interests from possible strike by the authorities of the government. That is one of the important and very influential positions in the Israeli democracy, and a central institution in the frame of the Israeli legal system.

Duties

The Attorney General has many duties, including: the head of the public prosecution from the state, the person who advises the government in legal matters, the person who represents the state's authorities in the courts, and advises in preparation of law memoranda of the government in general and the Justice Minister in particular (likewise he examines and advises for private proposals for a law of Knesset members). In spite of the position's great importance, the status, authorities, duties, terms of employing and method of appointment and dismissal of the adviser had not defined yet in law. Nonetheless, it is possible to learn about the adviser's status, authorities and duties from the instructions that the different advisers are producing over the years.

Appointment

In 1997 a commission in the chairmanship of the former president of the Israeli supreme court, Meir Shamgar, had been established for examination of the possibilities of the futuristic legislation in the subject, and recommended that the title of the adviser's position will be changed to "the chief legal adviser", accordingly to his responsibility for guarding the rule of law in all of the authorities of the government, and not only in the government. Likewise the commission recommended that the adviser will be appointed by the government according to the recommendations of a public commission, that will include five members: a retired judge of the supreme court, a former justice minister, a Knesset member who will be chosen by the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset, a lawyer who will be chosen by the national council of The Bureau of Lawyers in Israel, an expert in the subject of public law and in the subject of criminal law who will be chosen by the heads of the law faculties in the universities in Israel, in order to promise the choosing of an appropriate person who have the fitting qualifications for the job.

It is customary that the decision of the appointing of the legal adviser out of the recommended nominees list that the public commission serve, is done by the justice minister, and his decision is brought to the approval of the government, that usually approve the appointment.

The mode of the performance of the duty is derived, in a large scale, from the personality of the person who holds the position. Two of the legal advisers, Aharon Barak and Yitzhak Zamir, who came to the position from the academy, distinguished in the decisiveness that they demonstrated for the guarding of the rule of law in Israel. An attitude of interests, as opposed to an official attitude, brings the government to seek for a legal adviser who will allow her to do every thing she wants. This attitude led to a scandal in the appointing of Roni Bar-On to the legal adviser of the government, as part of a deal that was intended to save Aryeh Deri. Those events were named in the media "Bar-On Hebron affair". The appointment of Bar-On as the legal adviser had been accepted with unhappiness in the juridical community, and there were many people who thought that he don't have the fitting personality and legal knowledge for the job, what that brought to the wrecking of his appointment when he resigned one day after he took his oath of office.

Deputy positions

*Deputy Attorney General for consultation
*Deputy Attorney General for legislation
*Deputy Attorney General for Mishpat Ivri
*Deputy Attorney General for special assignments
*Deputy Attorney General for civil matters
*Deputy Attorney General for criminal matters
*Deputy Attorney General for fiscal-economic matters

List of Attorneys General

External links

* [http://www.justice.gov.il/MOJHeb/YoezMespati/ Attorney General on the Israeli Ministry of Justice website (in Hebrew)]