Event: Three Presidents, discussion with Former Chief Justices Barak, Beinisch, and Grunis (Cardozo Law, Nov 9, 2015)

The Israeli Supreme Court Project at Cardozo Law presents

THREE PRESIDENTS: Former Israeli Chief Justices in Conversation

A discussion with  Aharon Barak, Dorit Beinisch, and Asher Grunis

Monday, November 9 7 p.m. Cardozo School of Law Jacob Burns Moot Court Room  55 Fifth Avenue  |  New York, NY 10003 Please RSVP to saphir@yu.edu (with “RSVP” noted in the subject line) For more information, visit The Israeli Supreme Court’s website, Versa.

Cite: Gunneflo, The Targeted Killing Judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court

Gunneflo, Markus. "The Targeted Killing Judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court and the Critique of Legal Violence." Law and Critique 2012 (online first; final publication details n/a)

 

URL: http://www.springerlink.com/content/j762431w1767056v/

 

Abstract

The targeted killing judgment of the Israeli Supreme Court has, since it was handed down in December 2006, received a significant amount of attention: praise as well as criticism. Offering neither praise nor criticism, the present article is instead an attempt at a ‘critique’ of the judgment drawing on the German-Jewish philosopher Walter Benjamin’s famous essay from 1921, ‘Critique of Violence’. The article focuses on a key aspect of Benjamin’s critique: the distinction between the two modalities of ‘legal violence’—lawmaking or foundational violence and law-preserving or administrative violence. Analysing the fact that the Court exercises jurisdiction over these killings in the first place, the decision on the applicable law as well as the interpretation of that law, the article finds that the targeted killing judgment collapses this distinction in a different way from that foreseen by Benjamin. Hence, the article argues, the targeted killing judgment is best understood as a form of administrative foundational violence. In conclusion Judith Butler’s reading of Benjamin’s notion of ‘divine violence’ is considered, particularly his use of the commandment, ‘thou shalt not kill’, as a non-violent violence that must be waged against the kind of legal violence of which the targeted killing judgment is exemplary.