Project Director: Professor Mordechai Kremnitzer

Research Staff: Mr. Doron Navot, Adv. Nava Ben-Or (before her recent appointment as District Judge), Adv. Amir Fuchs, Mr. Guy Lurie, Adv. Guy Wertheim.

In recent years, many cases of abuse of power have come to light. Public corruption undermines basic principles of justice, the quality of government, social solidarity and the quality of life of the citizens and residents of the state. It also prejudices economic growth and the volume of economic investments in the country and even raises the price of government services. Untreated, corruption can undermine the systems of government and the foundations of society and render the administration illegitimate.

In recent years there are indications that the incidence of public corruption in Israel is rising. Among other things, Israel’s relative rating in Transparency International's index of corruption perception has been declining in the last years (although the 2007 surveys indicate that this trend may have been curbed); the number of public officials subject to criminal procedures because of their involvement in acts of corruption has grown; the state comptroller reports in the last years have uncovered cases of political appointments on a larger scale than ever before; analyses of the structure of the government systems in Israel and the degree of trust and social solidarity suggest that corruption may have become routine in government and politics.

The goal of the program is to contribute to the fight to reduce public corruption in Israel.

The Objectives of the Program Are

• To reinforce public discourse on public corruption by analyzing the term and the accepted explanations of the phenomenon
  
• To present a picture of the foci of political and public corruption
  
• To analyze the causes of the phenomenon in Israel and abroad
  
• To examine how law enforcement and public systems deal with acts of corruption
  
• To develop, on the basis of the situation in Israel and experience accrued in other countries, concrete policy and recommendations to prevent public corruption or reduce it

Projects

1. A comparative study of the offense of fraud and breach of trust: the study was conducted and led by Mordechai Kremnitzer, with the participation of Doron Navot, Nava Ben-Or, Amir Fuchs and Guy Wertheim. The study has been completed and is in the editing stage ahead of publication.
   
   The offense of fraud and breach of trust is an inclusive offense. The law that prohibits it should offer the criminal justice system a tool to fight acts of corruption that are not bribery. It can also be utilized in cases of acts in a state of conflict of interest under aggravating circumstances.
   
   The study examines the purpose of the criminal prohibition against breach of trust and its components by comparing it to other countries that have similar prohibitions. The study indicates material problems both in the written statute and in the case law established by the Supreme Court and proposes a detailed legislation draft on the desirable criminal prohibition of breach of trust.
   
   
2. Political corruption in Israel: a study to be published in three parts by Doron Navot under the supervision of Mordechai Kremnitzer. The first part presents the concept of political corruption and empirical theories that try to explain why corruption exists. The second part analyzes the state of corruption in Israel since Israel was founded until the present. The third part presents recommendations for curbing political corruption and strengthening democracy in Israel.
   
3. Conflict of interest and public law: a book edited by Prof. Dafna Barak-Erez, Doron Navot and Prof. Mordechai Kremnitzer. All of the articles that will appear in the compilation were written especially for the book. It will include, among others, articles by Supreme Court President (retired) Prof. Aharon Barak, Supreme Court Justice (retired) Prof. Yitzchak Zamir, Prof. Miriam Gur-Arye, Prof. Dafna Barak-Erez as well as an article by Kremnitzer and Doron Navot. The book is under preparation.
   
   
4. How law enforcement agencies confront violations by public officials: a study by Guy Lurie (under preparation) that examines the policy of the law enforcement system regarding the prosecution of senior public officials suspected of criminal offenses, mostly of a "corrupt nature." The study argues that the findings show the law enforcement system does not implement the “Buzaglo test” of equal treatment of laypeople and public figures.
   
   
5. A future study by Amir Fuchs will continue the above mentioned study by Guy Lurie. It will explore the acquittal of public figures charged with corruption offenses. The study will examine the hypothesis that the standards by which the courts examine the elements of the offense or not the same standards used regarding defendants who are not public figures.

Click here to read an interview with Mr. Doron Navot about his new book Political Corruption: A History of a Contraversial Concept