# Indexed passage in the Constitution of Israel

- Jurisdiction: Israel (IL)
- Chapter (as indexed): Chapter Three: The Courts
- Source document: Israel Constitution
- Canonical (HTML): https://www.portablelaw.com/provision/57f22fbc-38b7-4336-8802-898e3b145e47
- This document: https://www.portablelaw.com/provision/57f22fbc-38b7-4336-8802-898e3b145e47/md
- Constitution: https://www.portablelaw.com/countries/d251dbbc-8380-4aae-9c9e-2252be2551a0

## Verbatim text

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15. Supreme Court
a. The seat of the Supreme Court is Jerusalem.
b. The Supreme Court shall hear appeals against judgments and other decisions of
the District Courts.

Supreme court powers
c. The Supreme Court shall sit also as a High Court of Justice. When so sitting, it
shall hear matters in which it deems it necessary to grant relief for the sake of
justice and which are not within the jurisdiction of another court (beit mishpat
or beit din).

Supreme court powers
d. Without prejudice to the generality of the provisions of subsection (c), the
Supreme Court sitting as a High Court of Justice shall be competent -

Supreme court powers
1. to make orders for the release of persons unlawfully detained or
imprisoned.
2. to order State and local authorities and the officials and bodies thereof, and
other persons carrying out public functions under law, to do or refrain from
doing any act in the lawful exercise of their functions or, if they were
improperly elected or appointed, to refrain from acting;
3. to order courts (batei mishpat and batei din) and bodies and persons having
judicial or quasi- judicial powers under law, other than courts dealt with by
this Law and other than religious courts (batei din), to hear, refrain from
hearing, or continue hearing a particular matter or to void a proceeding
improperly taken or a decision improperly given;
4. to order religious courts (batei din) to hear a particular matter within their
jurisdiction or to refrain from hearing or continue hearing a particular
matter not within their jurisdiction, provided that the court shall not
entertain an application under this paragraph if the applicant did not raise
the question of jurisdiction at the earliest opportunity; and if he had no
reasonable opportunity to raise the question of jurisdiction until a decision
had been given by a religious court (beit din), the court may quash a
proceeding taken or a decision given by the religious court (beit din)
without authority.

Establishment of religious courts
e. Other powers of the Supreme Court shall be prescribed by Law.
constituteproject.org
PDF generated: 18 Apr 2016, 15:20
Page 34
Israel 1958 (rev. 2013)
16. Other courts
The establishment, powers, places of sitting and areas of jurisdiction of the District
Courts, the Magistrates' Courts and other courts shall be in accordance with Law.
17. Appeal

Right to appeal judicial decisions
A judgment of a court of first instance, other than a judgment of the Supreme Court,
shall be appealable as of right.
18. Further hearing
In a matter adjudged by the Supreme Court by a bench of three, a further hearing
may be held by a bench of five or more, on such grounds and in such manner as shall
be prescribed by Law.
19. Retrial
In a criminal matter adjudged finally, a retrial may be held on such grounds and in
such manner as shall be prescribed by Law.
20. Established rule
a. A rule laid down by a court shall guide any lower court.
b. A rule laid down by the Supreme Court shall bind any court other than the
Supreme Court.

Judicial precedence
21. Registrar
A court may have a registrar, who may or may not be a judge.
````

## What this means (mechanical reading aid, not legal advice)

- The index files it under the chapter heading “Chapter Three: The Courts”.
- The passage runs to about 546 words.
- Read plainly, it mentions arrest and detention — it deals with arrest or detention, and the conditions attached to holding a person (the words used: “detained”).
- **Caveat:** The index holds no article number for this record. Cite the passage itself rather than a section number.
- **Caveat:** This index row contains 7 separately numbered sections, so it is a chapter-length passage rather than one provision. Cite the passage, and treat any single section number as unverified.

> This is a mechanical reading aid generated from the text above by matching words in it. It is not legal advice, not a lawyer’s interpretation, and not a substitute for the provision itself.

## How to cite this

Constitution of Israel, passage filed under chapter “Chapter Three: The Courts”, Portable Lawyer, https://www.portablelaw.com/provision/57f22fbc-38b7-4336-8802-898e3b145e47 (accessed 27 September 2026).

## Related

- [Constitution of Israel](https://www.portablelaw.com/countries/d251dbbc-8380-4aae-9c9e-2252be2551a0)
- [Israel on Portable Lawyer](https://www.portablelaw.com/countries/d251dbbc-8380-4aae-9c9e-2252be2551a0)
- [HTML version of this provision](https://www.portablelaw.com/provision/57f22fbc-38b7-4336-8802-898e3b145e47)
- [Machine-readable corpus digest](https://www.portablelaw.com/llms-full.txt)

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Portable Lawyer · A chapter-length passage of the Constitution of Israel (chapter: “Chapter Three: The Courts”). 15. Supreme Court a. The seat of the Supreme Court is Jerusalem. b. The Supreme Court shall hear appeals against judgments and other decisions of the District Courts.  Supreme…