International Effects on the Security Wall Rulings of the Israeli High Court

Abstract

With the ever-growing significance of international law both domestically and internationally, courts mediate much of the give-and-take between the international system and the national political arenas, thus acting in settings where global and local are mixed. Such a pivotal position, I argue, lends courts the ability to maximize a twofold utility; firstly, on the international level judicial institutions play an increasingly important role and form what is essentially a transnational epistemic community. Secondly, on the domestic level, courts capitalize on this pivotal position to become increasingly central in the decision making process, forming alliances with other domestic players, and thereby securing the implementation of judicial rulings. Utilities on those two levels are inextricably linked. A case study of decisions of the Israeli Supreme Court concerning the security fence Israel built around the Occupied Palestinian Territories is offered here as an empirical test for the Court-Pivot Dual Utility Model.