Courts and Gender in the Religious-Secular Conflict in Israel
By Patricia J. Woods
"This
well-written book makes an important contribution by pushing the
analysis of the controversies surrounding judicial
intervention/activism to take ideas seriously. It provides a very
persuasive account of Israel's High Court of Justice's involvement in
religious issues and the key role of the judicial community in
precipitating that involvement. At the same time, Woods attends to the
roles of institutional factors and social movements in facilitating the
controversial rights actions/decisions of the HCJ. This book is a must
read for scholars of law and politics."
-- Austin Sarat, Amherst College
"The
author's notion of an extended judicial community of judges, academic
lawyers, and cause lawyers is a major move forward in the 'new
institutionalism' in the study of law and courts."
-- Martin Shapiro, Boalt Law School, University of California at Berkeley
Uses the case of Israel to examine the circumstances that lead national courts to engage heated political issues.
Publisher Summary:
Patricia
J. Woods examines a controversial issue in the politics of many
countries around the world: the increasing role that courts and
justices have played in deeply charged political battles. Through an
extensive case study of the religious-secular conflict in Israel, she
argues that the most important determining factor explaining when, why,
and how national courts enter into the world of divisive politics is
found in the intellectual or judicial communities with whom justices
live, work, and think about the law on a daily basis. The interaction
among members of this community, Woods maintains, is an organic,
sociological process of intellectual exchange that over time culminates
in new legal norms that may, through court cases, become binding legal
principles. Given the right conditions -- electoral democracy, basic
judicial independence, and some institutional constraints -- courts may
use these new legal norms as the basis for a jurisprudence that
justifies hearing controversial cases and allows for creative answers
to major issues of national political contention.
Available now from State University of New York Press.
Reviews of my book:In the Law and Politics Book Review, Law and Courts section of the American Political Science Association In the journal, Comparative Political Studies
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