What impact has English common law had on the legal system of Israel? That’s the question Lord Pannick KC discussed yesterday with Dorit Beinisch, president of the Supreme Court of Israel from 2006 to 2012.

The answer turned out to be considerable. During the British mandate period, there were appeals to the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council in London. For decades after Israel’s independence in 1948, Israeli lawyers relied on used well-worn English textbooks — Salmond, Wade, De Smith — and cited leading English precedents. Senior judges from the United Kingdom often referred to Israeli cases during the years when there were regular exchanges between the two jurisdictions.

The leading barrister and the former judge were in conversation at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as part of the Lionel Cohen lecture series — established in 1953 to honour Lord Cohen of Walmer, a law lord from 1951 to 1961. The discussion, attended by two of Cohen’s grandsons, marked the 75th anniversary of the university’s law faculty; the Hebrew University itself is celebrating its centenary this year.

Although Pannick led the discussion, he also answered questions from Israeli judges and academics at the seminar who demanded his insights on aspects of English law and on cases he had appeared in. Beinisch particularly admired Pannick’s success in persuading the UK Supreme Court to overturn Boris Johnson’s attempt to prorogue parliament for five weeks in 2019 — the sort of decision that she thought her own court would not have been brave enough to take.

It was a fascinating discussion on many levels — there was discussion of judicial appointments, checks and balances, Gouriet v HM Attorney General — and you can hear it by clicking the ► symbol above.

* Sorry that some of the questions from the floor are a bit hard to hear. Comments are disabled for this piece.

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