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Israel

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The Israeli judicial system (or judicial branch) in Israel, is an independent branch of the government which includes both secular and religious courts.

Contents 1 Secular courts 1.1 Magistrate courts 1.2 District courts 1.3 Supreme Court 2 Jewish religious courts 3 Non-Jewish religious courts 4 Military courts 5 Jurisdiction of International Court

Israeli secular courts consist of a three-tier system:

These serve as the courts of first instance.

These serve as the appellate courts and also serve as the court of first instance for some cases;

located in Jerusalem acts as a further appellate court, and as the High Court of Justice as a court of first instance, often in matters concerning the legality of decisions of state authorities.

See also: Religion in Israel

As of 2005, the Jewish religious authorities are under control of the Prime Minister's Office and the Chief Rabbinate of Israel. These courts, whose dayanim ("judges") are elected by the Knesset, have jurisdiction in only five areas:

1. Kashrut ("dietary laws" matters),
2. Shabbat (the Jewish "Sabbath"),
3. Jewish burial and marital issues (especially divorce). However, except for determining a person's marital status, all other marital issues may also be taken to secular Family Courts.
4. Conversion to Judaism (mostly dealing with the Jewish status of immigrants.)

The other major religions in Israel such as Islam and Christianity are supervised by their own official religious establishments (although the Muslim and Druze kaddis judges are also elected by the Knesset), which have similar jurisdiction over their followers, although Muslim religious courts have more control over family affairs. This is the maintenance of an agreement reached with the British Mandatory Authorities before the State of Israel's establishment in 1948.

The Military Court of Appeals is the highest judicial body in the Israeli military, which also includes the District and Special military tribunals.

In December 1985, Israel informed the UN Secretariat that it would no longer accept compulsory International Court of Justice jurisdiction.