Determination of Starting Sentences in Israel - System and Application

27 Pages Posted: 27 Jun 2010 Last revised: 25 Mar 2019

See all articles by Oren Gazal-Ayal

Oren Gazal-Ayal

University of Haifa - Faculty of Law

Ruth Kannai

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law

Date Written: June 24, 2010

Abstract

The Israeli Penal Law Bill (Amendment No. 92, Structuring Judicial Discretion in Sentencing) 5766-2006 proposes that a committee be set up to establish sentences that will serve as starting points for judges in their sentencing deliberation (starting sentences). The Israeli Minister of Justice asked the authors to propose starting sentences for three prevalent serious offences in order to show the Knesset (the Israeli parliament) the methodology of determining such starting sentences and to help facilitate the debate about the consequences of these new guidelines. The ministers intended the Knesset to legislate these proposed starting sentences in the appendix to the law so that they would take effect with the amendment while allowing the newly created Starting Sentences Committee to amend these starting sentences at a later stage. The authors proposed starting sentences for robbery, burglary, and aiding illegal aliens and submitted the study to the Knesset. The details of the bill are currently being debated in the Constitution, Law and Justice Committee of the Knesset, in preparation for second and third reading.

The following article is an excerpted English translation of the general part of the study, which was published in Hebrew on the Knesset Website, and of the proposed starting sentence for robbery.

Keywords: Sentencing Guidelines, Sentencing Reform, Israel

JEL Classification: K14

Suggested Citation

Gazal-Ayal, Oren and Kannai, Ruth, Determination of Starting Sentences in Israel - System and Application (June 24, 2010). Federal Sentencing Reporter, Vol. 22, No. 4, 2010, Bar Ilan University Public Law Working Paper, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1629949

Oren Gazal-Ayal (Contact Author)

University of Haifa - Faculty of Law ( email )

Mount Carmel
Haifa, 31905
Israel

HOME PAGE: http://weblaw.haifa.ac.il/en/Faculty/GazalAyal/Pages/default.aspx

Ruth Kannai

Bar-Ilan University - Faculty of Law ( email )

Faculty of Law
Ramat Gan, 52900
Israel

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