Published online by Cambridge University Press: 02 April 2024
Many studies suggest that courts fail to protect individual rights since they support and uphold state repressive practices during periods of emergency or confrontation. Previous studies focused on judicial policies as reflected injudicial declarations and decisions that were fully disposed by judges and officially published. I argue that the study of out-of-court settlements and the comparison between the outcomes of settlements and the judicial rhetoric are key to understanding the behavior of courts in times of national crisis. At such times, courts may hesitate to openly confront the government on the issue of minority rights, but they may strive to protect minorities by exerting pressure on the governmental legal apparatus and by effecting out-of-court settlements more favorable to minorities than official decisions. Thus, courts influence social practices while avoiding government or public opinion counterreactions that would impair their institutional autonomy. This argument is demonstrated in a case study of the Israeli High Court of Justice during the Palestinian Intifada.
I am indebted to Tom Baker, Malcolm Feeley, David Kretzmer, Ronen Shamir, David Weisburd and Eyal Zamir for their helpful comments on the draft. I have benefited from the many remarks made in reference to an earlier version of the article, which was presented at the Hebrew University Faculty of Law Departmental Seminar in February 1997. The research was supported in part by The Israel Science Foundation founded by the Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities and in part by a grant from the Minerva Center for Human Rights at the Faculty of Law of the Hebrew University and the Harry S. Truman Research Institute for the Advancement of Peace. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to Ms. Hila Nudler for her excellent work as a research assistant and to Mr. Shmuel Nachmias for his advice on the methodological parts of the article.
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