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Who is to Accomplish Criminal Law Reform: The Interrelationship between Parliament and the Judiciary*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 February 2016

Yuval Levy
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Extract

Who ought to bring about the essential reform in criminal law? At first glance, the answer appears obvious and unequivocal. In all modern Western democracies, the norm is for the function of lawmaking to be in the hands of the legislative branch of government, to the exclusion of the judiciary or any other organ inside or outside government.

The question posed above, however, is meant to explore a different issue, namely, the interrelationship between parliament and the judiciary in the province of criminal law reform, and their respective functions in effecting new policies. Assuming the task of legislation to be reserved to parliament, is there no room for judges to read into parliamentary enactments trend-making reformative content which would allow the implementation of what judges conceive to be the policies of the legislature in the field of penal law reform? Or is it, rather, incumbent upon the legislature itself to shape the character of the necessary reform with the statutory tools available to it?

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Articles
Information
Israel Law Review , Volume 22 , Issue 4 , Summer–Autumn 1988 , pp. 424 - 456
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press and The Faculty of Law, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem 1988

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References

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3 Ibid., at 610.

4 Hakstetter v. The State of Israel (1972) 26(i) P.D. 241.

5 Ibid., at 245.

6 Connolly v. General Construction Co. 162 U.S. 385 (1926).

7 Ibid., at 391.

8 Zachser v. The State of Israel (1978) 32 (ii) P.D. 828.

9 Ibid., at 832.

10 Penal Law, 1977 (Special volume L.S.I.).

11 P.G. Extraordinary, Supplement No.1, 14 Dec. 1936, No. 652, pp. 285–408.

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16 Criminal Law Act. 1967, sec. 5(2).

17 Eshed Temporary Transport Centre v. A.G. (1954) 8 P.D. 785.

18 Ibid., at 818.

19 Ibid., at 790–791.

20 Sec. 12 of the Penal Law, 1977.

21 Sec. 22 of the Interpretation Law, 1981 (supra n. 1) and sec. 10 of the Law and Administration Ordinance, 1948 (1 L.S.I. 7).

22 Shaw v. D.P.P. (1961) All E.R. 446.

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25 In R. v. Delaval (1763). 3 Burr at p. 1438.

26 Supra n. 22, at 452.

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30 Ibid., at 457.

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36 Ibid., at 903.

37 Ibid., at 923.

38 Ibid., at 918–919.

39 Ibid., at 923.

40 Lord Reid. ibid., at 905–906; Lord Diplock. ibid., at 915–923.

41 Lord Simon, ibid., at 935–936; Lord Kilbrandon, ibid., at 937.

42 Lord Diplock, ibid., at 919; Lord Simon, ibid., at 932; Lord Kilbrandon, ibid., at 937; Lord Reid, ibid., at 905; Lord Morris, ibid., at 911.

43 See supra n. 15.

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51 See supra n. 45.

52 Traffic Ordinance [New Version] (1 L.S.I. [N.V.] 222).

53 The State of Israel v. Shor (1983) 100(i) P.M. 350.

54 See supra n. 1.

55 Draft bill for the amendment of the Traffic Ordinance (Amendment No. 18), 1984, sec. 5 (H.H. no. 1663, p. 150).

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