Government panel backs bill stripping AG of authority over ministry legal advisers
‘If the bill is legislated, the ability of the attorney general to protect the rule of law will be diminished,’ warns Israel Democracy Institute researcher Guy Lurie
The Ministerial Committee for Legislation on Sunday voted to back a bill significantly eroding the authority of Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara over the legal advisers to government ministries.
The move is the latest effort of the government to weaken the authority of the legal sector and judiciary as part of the judicial overhaul, which critics say undermines Israel’s democracy and system of checks and balances.
If passed into law, the bill, sponsored by Likud MK Avichai Boaron, would ensure that government legal advisers working at various ministries would be removed from the authority of the attorney general in order to “strengthen their status and independence.”
Instead, legal advisers would be subordinate to the directors general of the ministry in which they serve, although they would still be permitted to consult with the attorney general.
In addition, the bill stipulates that the legal advisers would be the “sole authority that guides the state’s representatives in the courts regarding the government ministry’s legal position in legal proceedings.”
“Legal advisers have the greatest legal expertise in the affairs of the ministry in which they serve, and therefore it is appropriate that they be independent in the performance of their duties, so that they can advise and act independently in accordance with their professional judgment,” the legislation’s explanatory notes state.
The bill will now advance to the Knesset plenum for a preliminary vote before being referred to committee — in this case, likely the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee.
The coalition stated in 2023 that, as part of its judicial overhaul plan, it intended to reclassify ministry legal advisers from independent authorities to politically selected counsel whose opinions are explicitly non-binding upon the government and its ministers.
Currently, each ministry’s legal adviser falls under the aegis of the attorney general to preserve their independence from political influence, and their advice is binding upon ministries.
Proponents of the judicial overhaul frequently chafe at the intervention of the attorney general and ministerial legal counsels, whom they say argue too much and frequently override the policy initiatives of elected ministers, since their written positions are binding.
Critics of the government’s proposals for remaking the judicial system have warned that undermining the independence of ministerial legal counsels would undercut an important check on executive power.
If passed into law, this bill “could derail the coordinated work of the legal advisers to the government, which could in turn derail the coordinated work of the government in all its ministries,” Guy Lurie, a researcher at the Israel Democracy Institute, warned last week.
This, in turn, could mean that legal advice provided to the government “may also become less effective in ways that may infringe on the rule of law in the government, and may, at the end of the day, infringe on human rights,” Lurie told The Times of Israel.
“If the bill is legislated, the ability of the attorney general to protect the rule of law will be diminished.”
Baharav-Miara herself has been a subject of intense criticism from coalition lawmakers, and on July 14, a five-member ministerial committee will hold a previously delayed hearing to decide whether it supports her firing.
The committee — which was established by the government last month to bypass the existing method for firing an attorney general — was originally scheduled to convene on June 17, a hearing that was canceled due to the 12-day Iran war.
Baharav-Miara’s husband, Zion, died just as the ceasefire came into effect, further delaying any efforts to hold the hearing.
Jeremy Sharon contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.