The Supreme Court of Israel.
This program is part of the Center's series Key Legal Issues in Israel.
Wednesday, May 13, 202611:00 AM - 12:00 PM (Pacific Time)Webinar
11:00 AM Pacific / 2:00 PM Eastern / 19:00 UK / 21:00 Israel–Palestine
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Organized by the UCLA Y&S Nazarian Center for Israel Studies and the Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University.
About the Program
This talk examines Israel’s controversial “judicial overhaul” and how it evolved before and after Hamas’s October 7 terrorist attack, the ensuing war in Gaza, and subsequent military confrontations with Iran. It begins by outlining the government’s 2023 reform agenda—aimed at limiting judicial review, reshaping judicial appointments, and weakening legal oversight—and the strong institutional and public backlash it triggered. The presentation then traces the shift from rapid legislative change to more incremental steps, culminating in key legal developments such as the “reasonableness” ruling. Focusing on the post-October 7 period, the talk argues that the security crisis did not halt the overhaul but instead enabled its continuation through less visible, piecemeal measures.
About the Speakers
Issachar (Issi) Rosen-Zvi is a Professor of Law and the Director of the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics at Tel Aviv University. Between 2018 and 2022, he served as the Vice Dean of the Faculty of Law. Professor Rosen-Zvi obtained his J.S.D. from Stanford Law School. He clerked for the Honorable Chief Justice Aharon Barak of the Israeli Supreme Court and practiced law at Kirkland & Ellis, LLP in New York. Prof. Rosen-Zvi’s areas of research include procedural law, public law, local government law and the law of democracy.
Jon D. Michaels (moderator) is Professor of Law at UCLA School of Law and Advisor to the Dean on Civic Engagement. His scholarly and teaching interests include constitutional law, administrative law, national security law, the separation of powers, presidential power, regulation, bureaucracy, privatization, political extremism, and political violence. A two-time winner of the American Constitution Society’s Cudahy Award for scholarly excellence in administrative law and an elected member of the American Law Institute, Michaels has written essays for the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, LA Times, the Forward, Foreign Affairs, Time Magazine, American Prospect, and the Guardian. He is a frequent legal affairs commentator for national and local media outlets. Michaels is a graduate of Williams College, Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and Yale Law School, where he served as an articles editor for the Yale Law Journal.
DISCLAIMER: The views or opinions of our guest speakers and the content of their presentations do not necessarily reflect the views of the UCLA Younes and Soraya Nazarian Center for Israel Studies. Hosting speakers does not constitute an endorsement of the speaker's views or opinions.
Sponsor(s): The Buchmann Faculty of Law at Tel Aviv University