Knesset Panel Advances Bill to Split the Attorney General’s Role

The Knesset Constitution Committee today (Tuesday) approved for its first reading the proposed bill to split the role of the attorney general. The move is intended to allow the legislation to keep moving forward in the next Knesset as well, through the application of continuity law. In practice, that means the legislative process could continue from the point at which it stops, without having to restart the parliamentary process from the beginning.

The bill, being advanced by Constitution Committee chairman Simcha Rothman, seeks to make a structural change to the role of the attorney general by separating the office’s legal advisory powers from its criminal enforcement powers. Under the proposal, the attorney general’s powers would be divided between two separate officeholders: a legal adviser and a general prosecutor.

According to the text of the proposal, the attorney general would be appointed by the government, on the recommendation of the prime minister and the justice minister, and that official’s legal opinion would not be binding on the government. It also states that the government would be able, through a ministers’ committee it establishes, to determine its position in any legal proceeding in which it is represented by the attorney general. In addition, it would be allowed to hire private attorneys to represent it in court.

At the same time, the role of the general prosecutor would be defined separately. Under the proposal, the general prosecutor would also be appointed by the government, but from a list of candidates prepared by a public committee. It further states that the prosecutor would not be subject to the legal opinion of the attorney general, as part of the full separation the proposal seeks to create between legal counsel and the prosecution system.

Under the proposal, if it receives final approval in the Knesset plenum, it would take effect immediately.
Alongside the bill’s progress, Rothman yesterday added another clause to the proposal, aimed at tightening the conditions for opening criminal investigations and filing indictments against senior public servants, including the prime minister and ministers. Under the new clause, the general prosecutor would be required to obtain approval from a district court in order to open a criminal investigation against a range of public officeholders, including members of Knesset, deputy ministers, judges, rabbinical judges, the ombudsman for complaints against judges, and the ombudsman for complaints against state representatives in the courts, along with other senior officials.

The clause also states that filing an indictment against those senior officials would not be possible without the approval of a special three-member committee. The committee would be headed by a retired judge, alongside an attorney appointed by the attorney general and another attorney with criminal law experience, appointed by the chair of the State Control Committee.