Supreme Court Justice Aharon Barak has been appointed the high court’s president.
Barak, 59, a former attorney general, will now have the guiding hand over the high court, and over the Israeli legal system in general.
The president, also known as the chief justice, of the 14-member court determines the composition of panels that hear legal cases and sits on the committee that appoints and promotes judges.
Barak, who was sworn in Sunday, succeeds outgoing Chief Justice Meir Shamgar, who retired at the mandatory age of 70 after serving 12 years in the post.
Justice Shlomo Levine was appointed deputy president of the court, the position Barak held for the past two years.
Born in Lithuania, Barak immigrated to Israel with his parents in 1947.
He completed his law degree at The Hebrew University in 1958 and later continued his studies at Harvard University.
Barak was named dean of the law faculty at The Hebrew University in 1974. A year later, he received the prestigious Israel Prize for law.
He served as legal adviser during the negotiations at Camp David leading up to the signing of the 1979 Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty.
Bark’s reputation as a scrupulous public figure developed during his tenure as attorney general from 1975 to 1978.
It was during this period that Barak decided to press charges against Leah Rabin, then-Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin’s wife, after it was revealed that she had a bank account in the United States, in violation of Israeli law.
The incident played a large part in Yitzhak Rabin’s decision not to run for the premiership in 1977.
Since his appointment to the Supreme Court in 1978, Barak has been noted for his liberalism and judicial activism.
In 1986, Barak was the dissenting voice when the high court upheld the presidential pardon of two Shin Bet agents involved in covering up the murder of two captured terrorists.
His liberal stances have often led to confrontations with Israel’s Orthodox establishment.
Barak was part of a judicial panel that ruled that Israel’s national airline, El Al, must grant the same benefits to the partner of a homosexual employee as a that of a heterosexual one.
He also sat on a panel that overruled a government ban on importing non-kosher meat, terming it a violation of an importer’s right to earn a living.
Barak also joined with a recent ruling that Reform and Conservative Jews should be allowed to sit on local governmental boards that oversee religious affairs.
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