Law and the Kibbutz in Process: Adapting Liability Rules to Communal Society

Abstract

More than twenty years ago, a study of the legal status of the kibbutz pointed out the shortcomings of the existing legal framework and its failure to deal with distinctive features of kibbutz society. The study cited a 1960 District Court decision in a tort case which expressed surprise and dismay that, “in the twelfth year of Israel's independence … it is still necessary to decide matters concerning the unique way of life of the kibbutz and the norms governing it – as well as the legal consequences of a conflict between the kibbutz world and the ‘outside’ world – according to law that did not take into account the possibility of the existence of an entity like the kibbutz and pursuant to criteria that are not at all appropriate”. In 1984, Justice Barak quoted that passage to the same effect and we can do the same today.