Basic Laws of Israel

Israel’s Basic Laws are foundational laws that organise the state and protect certain rights. Although Israel has no single codified constitution, these laws collectively perform constitutional functions by establishing public institutions, regulating their powers and providing standards against which ordinary legislation can be reviewed.

A constitution built in stages

Israel follows an incremental approach to constitution-making rather than adopting one comprehensive constitutional document.

• The Harari Resolution of 1950 proposed preparing the constitution chapter by chapter, with each chapter constituting a Basic Law and the chapters eventually forming a constitution.
• The Knesset, Israel’s parliament, therefore acts both as an ordinary legislature and as a constitution-making authority when adopting Basic Laws.
• This arrangement separates constitutional subject matter from ordinary legislation without consolidating all constitutional rules into a single text.

Organising institutions and protecting rights

Basic Laws supply the framework within which government operates, while rights-related Basic Laws impose substantive limits on state action.

• Institutional Basic Laws concerning the Knesset, the Government and the Judiciary establish central organs of the state and regulate their composition, powers and relationships.
• Basic Laws also address subjects such as the presidency, the state economy and the armed forces, providing continuity beyond the life of any particular government.
• Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty, 1992, protects rights including life, dignity, personal liberty, property and privacy.
• Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation, 1994, protects the freedom of Israeli citizens and residents to engage in an occupation, profession or trade.

Constitutional supremacy, review and amendment

Their constitutional force comes from their subject matter, legal status and judicial enforcement, rather than from inclusion in one document.

• The rights-related Basic Laws contain limitation clauses: restrictions must meet conditions including consistency with Israel’s values, a proper purpose and proportionality.
• The Supreme Court recognises the constitutional status of Basic Laws and can invalidate ordinary legislation that conflicts with protected constitutional rights without satisfying the applicable constitutional conditions.
• Entrenchment varies: some provisions require a specified parliamentary majority for amendment, while others can be changed through ordinary parliamentary majorities.
• Consequently, Basic Laws provide constitutional constraints, but their uneven amendment safeguards make the boundary between constitutional change and ordinary politics less rigid than in many codified constitutions.