What Matters Now to Prof. Suzie Navot: Guarding against a 'Frankenstate'

Welcome to What Matters Now, a new weekly podcast exploration into one key issue shaping Israel and the Jewish World — right now.

On Monday, tens of thousands of Israelis took a day off work to protest outside the Knesset against the proposed judicial overhaul that was -- at the very same time -- being discussed at a stormy session of the Constitutional Committee inside.

The crowd was a sea of blue and white Israeli flags. Mostly secular, they sang, shouted, laughed and cried together against the bills that were, despite all their raucous energy, indeed passed for preliminary readings.

Many in Israel who support the judicial overhaul say that by adopting practices from other countries’ judicial systems, they are bringing the country in line with the standards of the international community. Many who oppose the legislation do agree to a need for reform, but say they are frightened that in cherry-picking from around the globe -- an override clause from Canada, a law from Norway and elements from the United States -- we will be headed toward a “Frankenstate.”

In 2013, Princeton University Prof. Kim Lane Scheppele coined the visceral term in her article, "Not Your Father’s Authoritarianism: The Creation of the "Frankenstate.'" In that essay, she writes, “A Frankenstate is an abusive form of rule, created by combining the bits and pieces of perfectly reasonable democratic institutions in monstrous ways, much as Frankenstein’s monster was created from bits and pieces of other living things. No one part is objectionable; the horror emerges from the combinations.”

This week, I made my way to the heart of old Jerusalem to the Israel Democracy Institute where I asked IDI vice president Suzie Navot, professor of Constitutional Law, what could happen if other legal systems are grafted on Israel’s judiciary.

Born in Uruguay, Navot made aliya to Israel at age 14. A polyglot, she has taught at the Sorbonne as a visiting professor as well as on the faculties of the Striks Faculty of Law at the College of Management and the National Security College in Israel.

Navot specializes in constitutional law, law of institutions, parliamentary law and comparative constitutional law, which gives her unique insight into what could happen if indeed this global mosaic of legislation does pass.

After this tempestuous week, we hear What Matters Now to leading Israeli legal expert, Prof. Suzie Navot.

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IMAGE: Vice president of the Israel Democracy Institute Prof. Suzie Navot at the IDI, December 2022. (Michal Fattal/IDI)

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