This chapter presents the significant influence that British administrative law had on Israeli administrative law – starting with the law of Mandatory Palestine, and then dealing with the gradual process of independence which has developed since the modern State of Israel was founded in 1948. The influence of British administrative law has been one of the most enduring legacies of British Mandatory rule in Palestine. At the same time, the Israeli Supreme Court has allowed itself a significant degree of independence in developing on these traditional principles. This process of independent development has intensified since the 1980s, and even more so following developments in the area of constitutional law since the 1990s.

This chapter provides a comprehensive description of the regime across dimensions and zones of control based on a short historical overview combined with several indexes reflecting different components of the regime. It shows that in Israel proper the highest levels of democraticness are in political contestation followed by protection, while the levels of coverage are much more limited. The regime in Israel proper is, overall, fairly stable despite some increase in democraticness after state consolidation and some more recent signs of possible decline. In the Occupied Territories, on the other hand, the levels of democraticness are minimal in the dimension of political contestation and coverage and highly limited in the area of protection. The regime in the Occupied Territories is not as stable as the regime in Israel proper due to changes in the zones of control. The zones of control shifted after the 1990s – a shift that can be seen as the major transformation of the Israeli regime up to date.