Q&A: The Court
The Court
Question
The Knesset is the legislative branch. And the court is supposed to rule subject to the law. If it has a question of interpretation, it should ask the Knesset what it meant. If the law is old and unclear, it is the Knesset’s role to repeal it and legislate a new law in its place. In the case of conflicting laws, the Knesset should decide which law to keep and which law to repeal. But under no circumstances is the court allowed to decide that the legislator’s intent was such-and-such, certainly not when the legislator says outright: that is not what I meant. If, for example, there is a minimum sentence in the law, it cannot reduce it. Am I right?
Answer
Absolutely not. Not at all. But this is not the place to lay out a systematic discussion of the matter.
Fine, but the Knesset being the legislative branch is a fact, and that is its definition. And the fact that the court is obligated to rule subject to the law follows from the principle of the rule of law, which everyone is bound by, and there have been cases in which the court ruled contrary to the law.