Courting Justice? Legitimation in Lawyering under Israeli Occupation |
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| Authors: | George E. Bisharat |
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| Affiliation: | George E. Bisharat;is an associate professor of law, Hastings College of the Law, University of California. The author has benefited from the able assistance of student researchers Farzad Tabatabai, Khaldoun Baghdadi, and Nagy Morcos. The comments of six anonymous readers of an earlier draft were extremely helpful, as were those of Lisa Hajjar, Neil Hicks, Jane Winn, Linda Bevis, Jonathan Kuttab, and James Ron. He is especially indebted to Stephen Ellmann, who first invited him to address the topic on a panel at the Law and Society Association annual meeting in Philadelphia, May 1992, and has further shepherded the works of the panelists to publication. |
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| Abstract: | Israel has since 1967 administered the West Bank and Gaza Strip through highly legalistic and strongly repressive military governments. Has advocacy in Israeli courts on behalf of Palestinian residents of the West Bank and Gaza Ship has kgitimaed, and thus helped to perpetuate, ongoing Israeli military occupation of those regions? By examining legitimation in lawyering under lsraeli occupation, insight can be gained into the factors and their relative weights that lawyers facing harsh or repressive regimes must consider in balancing the costs and benefits of litigation to serve a social or political opposition movement. The author concludes that the benefits outweigh the legitimating effects of lawyers’work and that, on balance, Palestinians’election to seek representation in Israeli courts, and lawyers’choice to assist them, has been justified. |
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