Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-b95js Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-11T02:50:56.192Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Do the “Haves” Still Come Out Ahead? Resource Inequalities in Ideological Courts: The Case of the Israeli High Court of Justice

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Yoav Dotan
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This research note examines the relations between judicial preferences, institutional concerns, and litigation outcomes. I found that in litigation before the Israeli High Court of Justice, the “haves” enjoyed only a limited advantage over “have nots” in litigation outcomes. I also found that when “have nots” were represented by legal counsel, the “haves” did not come out ahead. Ideological propensities of judges and considerations of institutional autonomy can ameliorate, to some extent, the inherent inferiority of “have nots” in litigation. It was also found that the mechanisms that worked in favor of “have nots” operated not only in litigation that reached final judicial disposition but also when the litigation was disposed through out-of-court settlements.

Type
Research Notes
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 33 , Issue 4: Do the “Haves” Still Come Out Ahead? , 1999 , pp. 1059 - 1080
Copyright
Copyright © 1999 by the Law and Society Association

Footnotes

An earlier version of this research note was presented at the conference “Do the ‘Haves’ Still Come Out Ahead?” at the Institute of Legal Studies, University of Wisconsin Law School, Madison, 1-2 May 1998. The research was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israeli Academy for Science and Humanities. I am indebted to Joya Skappa for her excellent work as a research assistant and to Dorit Rubinstein for her assistance with the empirical survey.

References

References

Adato, Edna (1996) “Netanyahu Reproves the ‘Irresponsible Attacks on the Supreme Court,‘” Yediot Aharonot, 28 Nov., p. 19 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Adler, M., & Bradley, A., eds. (1975) Justice, Discretion, and Poverty: Supplementary Benefit Appeal Tribunals in Britain. London: Professional Books.Google Scholar
Albiston, Catherine (1999) “The Rule of Law and the Litigation Process: The Paradox of Losing by Winning,” 33 Law & Society Rev. 869–910.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Atkins, Burton M. (1990) “Communication of Appellate Decisions: A Multivariable Model for Understanding the Selection of Cases for Publication,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 1171–196.Google Scholar
Atkins, Burton M. (1991) “Party Capability Theory as an Explanation for Intervention Behavior in the English Court of Appeal,” 35 American J. of Political Science 881–903.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barak-Erez, Daphne (1995) “From an Unwritten Constitution to Written Constitution: The Israeli Challenge in American Perspective,” 26 Columbia Human Rights Law Rev. 309–55.Google Scholar
Barzilai, Gad (1996) “Courts as Hegemonic Institutions: Bagatz (HCJ) in a Comparative Perspective.” Presented at “Israel in a Comparative Perspective: The Dynamics of Change Conference,” Univ. of California, Berkeley (2-4 Sept.).Google Scholar
Barzilai, Gad (1998) “States against Communities: Communities against States: Minorities and Law in Israel.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston (3-6 Sept).Google Scholar
Barzilai, Gad, Yuchtman-Yaar, Ephraim, & Segal, Zeev (1994a) The Israeli Supreme Court and the Israeli Public. Tel Aviv: Papyrus, Tel Aviv Univ. Press (Hebrew with English abstract).Google Scholar
Barzilai, Gad, Yuchtman-Yaar, Ephraim, & Segal, Zeev (1994b) “Supreme Court and Public Opinion: General Paradigms and the Israeli Case.” 3 Law & Courts (Winter) 3–6.Google Scholar
Baum, Lawrence (1998) The Supreme Court, 6th Ed. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Dotan, Yoav (1998) “Judicial Review and Political Accountability: The Case of the High Court of Justice in Israel,” 32 Israel Law Rev. 448–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dotan, Yoav (1999) “Judicial Rhetoric, Government Lawyers, and Human Rights: The Case of the Israeli High Court of Justice during the Intifada” 33 Law & Society Rev. 319–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dunworth, Terence, & Rogers, Joel (1996) “Corporations in Court: Big Business Litigation in U.S. Federal Courts, 1971–1991,” 21 Law & Social Inquiry 497–592.Google Scholar
Epp, Charles R. (1998) The Rights Revolution. Chicago: Chicago Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Epstein, Lee, Segal, Jeffrey A., Spaeth, Harold J., & Thomas, Walker G. (1994) The Supreme Court Compendium: Data, Decisions, and Developments. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly.Google Scholar
Farole, Donald J. Jr. (1999) “Reexamining Litigant Success in State Supreme Courts,” 33 Law & Society Rev. 1043–58.Google Scholar
Fiss, Owen M. (1984) “Against Settlement,” 93 Yale Law J. 1073–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Funston, Richard (1975) “The Supreme Court and Critical Elections,” 69 American Political Science Rev. 795–844.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Galanter, Marc (1974) “Why the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead: Speculations on the Limits of Legal Change,” 9 Law & Society Rev. 95–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Genn, Hazel (1993) “Tribunals and Informal Justice,” 56 Modern Law Rev. 393–411.Google Scholar
Hase, Friedhelm, & Ruete, Matthias (1982) “Constitutional Court and Constitutional Ideology in West Germany,” 10 International J. of the Sociology of Law 267–76.Google Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L. (1995) “Resource Inequality and Regional Variations in Litigation Outcomes in the Philippine Supreme Court,” 48 Political Research Q. 371–80.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haynie, Stacia L., & Devore, Joseph (1996) “Judging in Unjust Regime: South Africa's Appellate Division, 1950–1990,” 17 American Rev. of Politics 243–63.Google Scholar
Hofnung, Menachem (1996) “The Unintended Consequences of Unplanned Legislative Reform: Constitutional Politics in Israel,” 44 American J. of Comparative Law 585–604.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kaluf, Israel (1998) “District Judges as Extras,” 3 Lawyer (March) 26-29 (in Hebrew) .Google Scholar
Kretzmer, David (1990) “Forty Years of Public Law,” 23 Israel Law Rev. 341–55. (in Hebrew).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kretzmer, David (1994) “Judicial Review over Demolition and Sealing of Houses in the Occupied Territories,” in Zamir, I., ed., Klinghoffer Book on Public Law. Jerusalem, Harry Sacher Institute (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. (1990) The Justice Broker. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. (1991) Let's Make a Deal: Understanding the Negotiation Process in Ordinary Litigation. Madison: Univ. of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Kritzer, Herbert M. (1997) “Rethinking Barriers to Legal Practice,” 81 Judicature (Nov.-Dec.) 100–103.Google Scholar
Lawrence, Susan E. (1990) The Poor in Court. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McCormick, Peter (1993) “Party Capability Theory and Appellate Success in the Supreme Court of Canada,” 26 Canadian J. of Political Science 523–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miliband, Ralph (1969) The State of Capitalist Society. London: Weidenfeld and Nicholson.Google Scholar
Monsma, Karl, & Lempert, Richard (1992) “The Value of Counsel: 20 Years of Representation before a Public Housing Eviction Board,” 26 Law & Society Rev. 627–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mosier, Marilyn M., & Soble, Richard A. (1973) “Modern Legislation, Metropolitan Court, Minuscule Results: A Study of Detroit's Landlord-Tenant Court,” 7 Univ. of Michigan J. of Law Reform 63.Google Scholar
Posner, Richard A. (1972) “The Behavior of Administrative Agencies,” 1 J. of Legal Studies 305–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattner, Arye (1994) “The Margins of Justice: Attitudes towards the Law and Legal System Among Jews and Arabs in Israel,” 6 International J. of Public Opinion Research 358–70.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scheingold, Stuart A. (1974) The Politics of Rights. New Haven, CT: Yale Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Jeffery A., & Cover, Albert D. (1989) “Ideological Values and Votes of the U.S. Supreme Court Justices,” 83 American Political Science Rev. 557–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, Jeffrey A. and Spaeth, Harold J. (1993) The Supreme Court and the Attitudinal Model. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Segal, Zeev (1988) Israeli Democracy. Tel Aviv: Ministry of Defense.Google Scholar
Shamir, Ronen (1990) “‘Landmark Cases’ and the Reproduction of Legitimacy: The Case of Israel's High Court of Justice,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 781–805.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sharfman, Daphna (1993) Living without a Constitution: Civil Rights in Israel. New York: M. E. Sharp.Google Scholar
Sheehan, Reginald S., Mishler, William, & Songer, Donald S. (1992) “Ideology, Status, and the Differential Success of Direct Parties before the Supreme Court,” 86 American J. of Political Science 464–71.Google Scholar
Shehori, Dalia (1996) “Rt. Hon. Justice Shamgar: The Attack on HCJ Is Unwanted,” Ha'aretz (18 Nov.), p. 12.Google Scholar
Siegelman, Peter, & Donohue, John J. (1990) “Studying the Iceberg from Its Tip: A Comparison of Published and Unpublished Employment Discrimination Cases,” 24 Law & Society Rev. 1133–69.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., Davis, Sue, & Haire, Susan (1994) “A Reappraisal of Diversification in Federal Courts: Gender Effects in the Courts of Appeal,” 56 J. of Politics 425–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., & Sheehan, Reginald S. (1992) “Who Wins on Appeal? Upperdogs and Underdogs in the United States Courts of Appeals,” 36 American J. of Political Science 235–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Songer, Donald R., Sheehan, Reginald S., & Haire, Susan Brodie (1999) “Do the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead over Time? Applying Galanter's Framework to Decisions of the U.S. Courts of Appeals, 1925–1988,” 33 Law & Society Rev. 811–32.Google Scholar
Wheeler, Stanton, Cartwright, Bliss, Kagan, Robert A., & Friedman, Lawrence M. (1987) “Do the ‘Haves’ Come Out Ahead? Winning and Losing in State Supreme Courts, 1870–1970,” 21 Law & Society Rev. 403–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zamir, Itzhak (1970) “Justice in the High Court of Justice,” 26 Hapraklit 212–29 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Zamir, Itzhak (1975) Adjudication in Administrative Cases. Jerusalem: Harry Sacher Institute (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Zamir, Itzhak (1990) “Public Law—Revolution or Progress?” 19 Mishpatim 563–71 (in Hebrew).Google Scholar
Zureik, Elia, Moughrabi, Fouad, & Sacco, Vincent F. (1993) “Perception of Legal Inequality in Deeply Divided Societies: The Case of Israel,” 25 International J. of Middle East Studies 423–42.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Cases Cited

H.C. 287/69 Miron v. Minister of Labor, 24(1) P.D. 337..Google Scholar
H.C. 2/79 El Asad v. Minister of Interior, 34(1) P.D. 505..Google Scholar
H.C. 390/79 Dawikat v. Government of Israel, 34(1) P.D. 1..Google Scholar
H.C. 320/80 Kawasme et al. v. Minister of Defense, 35(3) P.D. 113..Google Scholar
H.C. 910/86 Ressler v. Minister of Defense, 42(2) P.D. 441..Google Scholar
H.C. 153/87 Shakdiel v. Minister for Affairs of Religion, 42(2) P.D. 221..Google Scholar
H.C. 953/87 Poraz v. Mayor of Tel-Aviv, 42(2) P.D. 309..Google Scholar
H.C. 943/89 Ganor v. Attorney General, 44(2) P.D. 485..Google Scholar
H.C. 168/91 Morkus v. Minister of Defense, 35(1) P.D. 467..Google Scholar
H.C. 3473/92 The National Council for the Welfare of the Child v. The Minister for Labor and Welfare, 37(1) P.D. 148..Google Scholar
H.C. 6163/92 Eisenberg v. Minister of Housing, 47(2) P.D. 229..Google Scholar
H.C. 3094/93 The Movement for the Quality of Government v. Government of Israel, 47(5) P.D. 404..Google Scholar
H.C. 4267/93 Amiti v. Prime-Minister of Israel, 47(5) P.D. 441..Google Scholar
H.C. 7074/93 Swissa v. Attorney General, 48(2) P.D. 749..Google Scholar
H.C. 7081/93 Botzer v. Municipal Council of Makabim-Reut, 40(1) P.D. 19..Google Scholar
H.C. 453/94 Shdulat Ha'nashim B'Israel v. Minister of Transportation, 38(5) P.D. 542..Google Scholar
H.C. 721/94 El-Al v. Danilovich, 48(5) P.D. 749..Google Scholar
H.C. 2148/94 Gelbert v. President of the Supreme Court, 48(3) P.D. 573..Google Scholar
H.C. 4541/94 Miller v. The Minister of Defense, 39(4) P.D. 103..Google Scholar
H.C. 5364/94 Volner v. The Labor Party, 49(1) P.D. 758..Google Scholar
H.C. 4671/98 Awad Abu Fariach v. The Education Authority for the Bedouins in the Negev (Aug. 23, 1998)..Google Scholar