Role of government’s legal adviser in curbing corruption in Israel
| Pages | 195-202 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/JFC-12-2017-0125 |
| Date | 07 January 2019 |
| Published date | 07 January 2019 |
| Author | Denis Primakov |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & Finance,Financial risk/company failure,Financial crime |
Role of government’s legal adviser
in curbing corruption in Israel
Denis Primakov
Law Department, Vserossijskaa akademia vnesnej torgovli,
Moskva, Russian Federation
Abstract
Purpose –The status of government’s legaladviser in Israel is complicated and controversial. This status
deeply impacts discretionand independence, especially in the role of combatingcorruption. This article aims
to review the status, power and independenceof the government’s legal adviser and his/her interaction with
other legal institutionsdealing with corruption cases.
Design/methodology/approach –The author argues that the period of the 1980s, in Israel, was
characterized by prosecution’s activism because of the dramatically increasednumber of corruption-related
cases.
Findings –Prominent government legal advisersformulated approaches to the struggle against political
corruption in Israel; upon becoming justices of the supreme court, they successfully transited their
prosecutionmindset to judicial activism (and notonly for corruption-related cases).
Originality/value –This article discoversa linkage between prosecutionand judicial positions, not under
the Israeli legislationbut based on personal willingness to combat corruption.
Keywords Combatting corruption, Government’s legal adviser, Israel legal system,
Judicial activism in Israel, Political corruption, Prosecution activism
Paper type Research paper
Corruption has many faces and has long been enrooted in Israel since before 1948. Many
migrants to the new society were unable to relinquish their former tolerant attitude toward
corruption, i.e. abuse of powers, bribery, illicit enrichment and grafts to state servants and
public officials.
Most scholars acknowledge that the Israeli legal system has many legal institutions
tracing their roots to the Ottoman Rule and the British Mandate.During the 30 years of the
British Mandate over Palestine (1918-1948), the local legal system underwent an extensive
process of anglicization(Fridmann, 1975).
The government’s legal adviser (attorney general) is the Israeli chief prosecutor; he also
serves as a legal adviser to government authorities and is viewed as an authorized
interpreter of the law for the government, whose legal opinions are binding. Aaron Barak,
who served as the government’s legal adviser from 1975 to 1978, pointed out the adviser’s
special place betweenexecutive and legislative branches:
The institute of the government’s legal adviser has no resemblance in the civil law countries
neither in the case law countries. This is a unique position that plays a central role in the rule of
law in Israel[1].
The fight against corruption is supposed to be as distant from politics as from politicians.
Suspicions about the integrityof the government’s legal adviser (Bar-On-Hebron affair) may
undermine confidencein the enforcement agencies.
Curbing
corruption in
Israel
195
Journalof Financial Crime
Vol.26 No. 1, 2019
pp. 195-202
© Emerald Publishing Limited
1359-0790
DOI 10.1108/JFC-12-2017-0125
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
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