The Paradox of Authority: Israeli Law Since February 16, 1949

Israeli statutes enacted before 16 February 1949 named the body that enacted them. Statutes enacted after that date do not — not even the Basic Laws the Supreme Court treats as constitutional. Nothing in the text of a Knesset law states who made it, or on whose authority.

The article establishes this from the official gazettes and from the records of the Provisional Council of State and the Knesset, and argues that the omission is the formal trace of a question Israel has never settled: whether the Knesset legislates as a legislature, as a constituent assembly, or as both at once.

The paper is under review. For the current draft, please write to me.

A presentation given in April 2023 offers a shorter route into the argument.