The Law Library of Congress recently published a report, Israel: Interstate Legal Assistance, which addresses the conditions, scope, and procedures for provision of legal assistance to foreign states under Israel’s Interstate Legal Assistance Law, 5758-1998, as amended.
In accordance with Israel‘s Interstate Legal Assistance Law, 5758-1998, as amended, legal assistance to other countries may be provided in connection with the service of documents, collection of evidence, and other legal actions related to civil or criminal matters. The competent authority to receive and decide on requests for legal assistance in Israel under the law is the Minister of Justice or the minister’s designee. To be considered, the request must be submitted on behalf of a competent foreign authority, the designation of which is conveyed to its Israeli counterpart.
Assistance is not provided, among other reasons, in connection with arrest or other procedure pending extradition, or in connection with an offense considered a military offense, or offenses of a political nature under definitions provided in the law. The law provides for the procedures that must be followed by foreign states in filing requests for interstate legal assistance.
To find out more, we invite you to review our report, here.
Information on Israel’s extradition law and procedures is available at a Law Library report titled Israel: Extradition Law Evolution from Sheinbein to Rosenstein. Note that we have also previously blogged on the Sheinbein Saga and the Evolution of Israel’s Extradition Law.
Our recently published report on Israel’s interstate legal assistance is an addition to the Law Library’s Legal Reports (Publications of the Law Library of Congress) collection, which includes over 4,000 historical and contemporary legal reports covering a variety of jurisdictions, researched and written by foreign law specialists with expertise in each area. To receive alerts when new reports are published, you can subscribe to email updates and the RSS feed for Law Library Reports (click the “subscribe” button on the Law Library’s website). The Law Library also regularly publishes articles related to Israel in the Global Legal Monitor.
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