AHARON BARAK
The swap was made and all captives were released.
The Supreme Court limited authority of religious courts to matters where both parties belonged to the religion. Jewish courts had tried to assert the power to annul mixed marriages where only one party was Jewish on the grounds that orthodox Jews oppose mixed marriage. Conflict between religious & civil courts has existed ever since there have been civil courts. Historically there was no separation & the Religious Courts in ancient Israel, early Christendom & Islam had universal jurisdiction. As Europe’s civil authorities wrested authority from religious courts, modernity has diminished or eliminated the legal jurisdiction of religious courts. Even in the United States there are courts operated by some religions; if members wish to voluntarily submit their disputes, they can. In most Islamic countries & Israel there are religious courts which have some authority over family & purely religious matters & in Muslim theocracies the religious courts are the only courts as in ancient times.
The issue of how far one may morally and legally go in questioning suspects or terrorists was heavily debated in Israel several years before the issue came to the United States. This opinion caused the Israeli authorities to refrain from some of the more aggressive techniques that the Israeli authorities had wanted.
Aharon Barak is an Israeli Professor of Law at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya and a lecturer in law at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, the Yale Law School, Central European University, Georgetown University Law Center, and the University of Toronto Faculty of Law.
