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Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty (Israel)


Basic Law: Human Dignity and Liberty is a Basic Law, intended to protect main human rights in Israel. The view of most Supreme Court judges, is that the enactment of this law and of Basic Law: Freedom of Occupation began the Constitutional Revolution, because the Knesset gave these two laws super-legal status, giving the courts the authority to disqualify any law contradicting them. According to this claim (which is not supported by all) these laws marked a substantial change in the status of human rights in Israel.

The law was enacted on the final days of the 12th Knesset, March 17, 1992. Shortly after it was introduced into Israeli constitutional documents, it became prevalent in human rights discourse, as well as in freedom of speech cases.

The rights protected by this law are detailed in several clauses:

However, several cardinal human rights are missing from this document, such as the Right for Equality, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Freedom of Protest, and others. These rights were given to the residents of Israel by general principles which existed before this Basic Law. Although these rights were not included in the law, some jurists, such as former President of The Supreme Court of Israel Aharon Barak, see these rights are directly derived from the "right to dignity".

Due to these rights' great importance, the Knesset chose to give this law a high legal status, protected by several means.

Section 8 of this law asserts that "There shall be no violation of rights under this Basic Law except by a law befitting the values of the State of Israel, enacted for a proper purpose, and to an extent no greater than is required, or by regulation enacted by virtue of express authorization in such law." (sentence in italics added in a 1994 amendment to the law). This clause became known as "limiting paragraph", as it limits and restricts the Knesset in legislating laws contradicting this law.


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