Familial and Marital Law of the State of Israel: Premises of the Establishment and Development

Abstract

INTRODUCTION. Israel is a diverse and controversial state. Its laws, especially those of the area of family and marital law, are distinctly unique. The reason being that throughout its centuries-long history Eretz Israel (the Land of Israel) – the historical name of the country, the structure of norms of this branch of law has gone through a set of changes under different political regimens. The government ruling over this holy land at a certain time period was to some extent influencing current social order and the lives of Jewish people, including such aspect as the performance of religious rituals.Considering the specificity of traditionalistic norms of Judean legal system attempts of influence on it from the outside have always been a big challenge. Those norms had to be strictly followed as it was of utmost importance for the conservation of the Jewish communities, Jewish culture and its authenticity, which for centuries has been challenged by many in attempts to modify, discriminate and even irradicate it. Hence, in this article the authors examined the most notable periods of the existence of Jewish communities in Eretz Israel. Inter alia there is an analysis of rules and measures introduced by the ruling system under the Ottoman Empire (from year 1517 to year 1917), of decrees present under the Mandate of Palestine (1922-1948), of the Israeli Declaration of Independence in 1948 and of current legislation. MATERIALS AND METHODS. The article isbased on the current Israeli legislation which concerns familial and marital relations, as well as on traditional religious code of rules and obligations “Halakha” which is still in action in Israel’s society. In the article Ottoman and British-Palestinian legislation is mentioned which was in force during the corresponding historical periods of time. It is also stated that the majority of the legislative acts in the area of familial and marital relations follow the principles of the International law, the rulings of the Supreme court of Israel are made according to the norms of International law and, among other things, in consideration with the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women of 1979. For the achievement of result general and specific scientific methods of research were applied, in particular historical-legal and comparative-legal methods of study. RESEARCH RESULTS. Research result consists in presentation of current Israeli familial and marital legislation and other religious traditional rules review. It is well-proven that despite the strictness of the Judean traditions, according to the clauses of the Israeli Declaration of Independence 1948, Israel being a Jewish state is also a modern and democratic one. Democratic principles of equality and humanism prevail in cases where in the proceedings regarding marital and family affairs where the rights of one of the parties are violated, every citizen of the state of Israel can appeal to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court of Justice seeking a justified sentence and protection of one’s interests. Therefore, the result of the integration of the legal principles typical for democratic countries and the traditional norms of Judaism current legal system of the state of Israel was created. The mechanism of this system comes from the respect for the traditions whilst the main principles of democracy are also followed, namely those of justice, equality and humanism. This is what makes the legal system of Israel unique in every aspect, including the norms of familial and marital relations which integrate both traditional implementations and modern aspects. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS. In the frames of the present research study the authors found that familial and marital law of Israel is based on norms of the Religious law, on a special code of rules and obligations called – “Halakha”. From the standpoint of the development of law and practice, a certain role was played by the procedural rules introduced in the territory of Eretz Israel during the period of Ottoman Empire. English law had a certain influence on the development of Israeli law in general during British Mandate of Palestine. Modern Israeli legislation in the field of marriage and family relations is based on and takes into account international agreements to which Israel is a party.