Yoel Zussman
Joel Zussman (also Yoel Sussman, born October 24, 1910 in Cracow † 2 March 1982) was an Israeli lawyer and judge.
Life
After school he studied law at the University of London, graduating with a Bachelor of Laws ( LL.B. ). After postgraduate studies carried out his PhD. at the Ruprecht -Karls- University of Heidelberg. In 1934 he emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine, where he was admitted to the bar.
After the establishment of Israel in 1949, he was chief prosecutor of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF ), before being appointed in 1951 as a judge to the Supreme Court, he was its vice-president until 1953.
As a judge, he was a correspondent in the 1965 process " Ya'akov Yardor v. Central Election Committee ," a landmark ruling on the electoral law of Israel, and thereby created the concept of a self- defending democracy " (Self - defending democracy ). It was about the admission of the radical Arab List " Al- Ard " to the elections to the sixth Knesset. The Supreme Court upheld the exclusion of the list and thus the ban as a proscribed organization by the Ministry of Defence. In his ruling itself Zussman, basing on the Federal Constitutional Court in the process of party ban the Socialist Reich Party ( SRP) in 1952 and the KPD ban of 1956 as a precedent and stated that it in certain cases on the Constitution standing, dating back to the natural law considerations give, which are higher than any legislation:
" Just as in individual is not bound to agree to being killed, neither a state is Obliged to consent to being annihilated and erased from the map ... The German Constitutional Court ... spoke of a " fighting democracy, " Which does not open its doors to acts of sabotage in the guise of legitimate parliamentary activity. For myself, as far as Israel is Concerned, I am prepared to confine myself to "self- defending democracy", and tools for defending the existence of the state are at hand, even if we have not found them set forth in detail in the Elections Law. "
"Just as an individual is not required to agree to be murdered, so no state is required to give its consent to be destroyed and wiped off the map ... The German Federal Constitutional Court ... speaks of a" fighting democracy, " their doors not open for acts of sabotage in the guise of parliamentary activities. I myself, as far as relates to Israel, I am prepared to confine myself to a "self- defending democracy ", and instruments to defend the existence of the state are present, even when we do not find written down in detail in the electoral law. "
In 1976 he was appointed as the successor of Shimon Agranat President of the Supreme Court and held this post until his retirement.
For his contribution to the case-law and justice, he was honored in 1975 with the then Attorney General and later President of the Supreme Court, Aharon Barak, the Israel Prize. In addition, the Joel - Zussman Institute for Applied Legal Studies was founded in 1984.