The Comrades Law of Hebrew workers in Palestine: A study in socialist justice

Law and History Review

Volumn 20, Issue 2, 2002, Pages 279-305

  Shamir, Ronen ^a  

^a TEL AVIV UNIVERSITY   (Israel)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 60950460634     PISSN: 07382480     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/744036     Document Type: Article

References (50)

1. See, for example, Raymond Michalowski, "All as Nothing: An Inquiry into the Impossibility of Cause Lawyering under Cuban Socialism," in Cause Lawyering: Political Commitments and Professional Responsibilities, ed. Austin Sarat and Stuart Scheingold (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998), 523-45.
2. Sally E. Merry, "Sorting Out Popular Justice," in The Possibility of Popular Justice, ed. Sally E. Merry and Neal Milner (Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1995), 31-66.
3. Robert M. Hayden, "Popular Use of Yugoslav Labor Courts and the Contradiction of Social Courts," Law and Society Review 20 (1986): 229-51.
4. Zeev Sternhell, Nation-Building or a New Society? The Zionist Labor Movement (1904-1940) and the Origins of Israel (Tel Aviv: Am Oved, 1995) (Hebrew).
5. Robert M. Hayden, Social Courts in Theory and Practice: Yugoslav Workers' Courts in Comparative Perspective (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991).
6. Moshe Lissak, "Immigration, Absorption and Society Building in the Jewish Community in Eretz-Israel (1918-1930)," in The History of the Jewish Community in Eretz-Israel since 1882, ed. Moshe Lissak (Jerusalem: Bialik Institute, 1994), 172-302 (Hebrew).
7. Sternhell, Nation-Building
8. Lev L. Grinberg and Gershon Shafir, "Economic Liberalization and the Breakup of the Histadrut's Domain," in The New Israel, ed. Gershon Shafir and Yoav Peled (Boulder, Colo. : Westview Press, 2000), 103-28.
9. Deborah S. Bernstein, "Challenges to Separatism: Joint Action by Jewish and Arab Workers in Jewish Owned Industry in Mandatory Palestine," in The New Israel.
10. David De Vries, "The Making of Labour Zionism as a Moral Community: Workers' Tribunals in 1920s Palestine," Labour History Review 65 (2000): 139-65.
11. Moshe Greenberg, "Comrades Law and the State," inMishpat Ha'Haverin (Comrades Law) (Tel Aviv: Histadrut Klalit, 1926), 27-30 (Hebrew).
12. On the history of the Hebrew Law of Peace, see Ronen Shamir, The Colonies of Law: Colonialism, Zionism and Law in Early Mandate Palestine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000).
13. In principle, the coexistence of two nonstate Zionist judicial systems in Palestine, one targeting workers and the other targeting the general public, could lead to jurisdictional struggles. However, I found no evidence that such was the case. Advocates of each system often expressed support for the goals of the other and cases of cooperation between the two systems had not been rare. A draft of a revised constitution of the Comrades Law even instructed judges that "when the regulations are silent, the ordinary practices of arbitration and of the Hebrew Law of Peace should be followed" (Article 9, chap. 1, Lavon Archive, (4)-250-72-1-2479) (Hebrew).
14. Yisrael Bar Shira, "A Study of the Substance of the Comrades Law," Ha'mishpat 4 (1930): 107 (Hebrew).
15. also see Zalman Feller, "On the Comrades Law," Davar, 26 Nov. 1926, 2 (Hebrew).
16. Bar Shira, "A Study of the Substance of the Comrades Law," 112
17. Feller, "On the Comrades Law. "
18. See De Vries, "The Making of Labour Zionism"
19. Shani Bar-On and David De Vries, "The Procrustean Bed of Professionalism: Lawyers and the Making of the Histadrut's Tribunals in 1920s-1930s Palestine," Avoda, Hevra U'Mishpat 8 (2001): 15-42 (Hebrew).
20. Also see a letter from a lower-instance court to the High Comrades Law Court, dated 5 Sept. 1927, arguing along similar lines, High Comrades Court, Jan. 1927-May 1928, Lavon Archive, (4)-245-2-1 (Hebrew).
21. Yisrael Shivo, "About Another Institution of the Histadrut," Davar, 15 June 1926, 3 (Hebrew).
22. Y. H. (Unknown), "Revising the Comrades Law," Davar, 11 Nov. 1928, 2 (Hebrew)
23. Azaria Eliyahu, "On the Comrades Law," Davar, 4 Nov. 1928, 3 (Hebrew)
24. Comrades Law Protocols 1935, Lavon Archive, (4)-208-1-106 (Hebrew).
25. Shamir, The Colonies of Law, 135.
26. Shivo, "About Another Institution of the Histadrut. "
27. Shmuel Dotan, Reds: The Communist Party in Palestine (Kfar Sava: Shavna Hasofer, 1991) (Hebrew).
28. Moshe Ben-Eliyahu, "Enforcement of Comrades Courts' Decisions," in Mishpat Ha'Haverin (Comrades Law) (Tel Aviv: Histadrut Klalit, 1926), 34-37 (Hebrew).
29. Merry, "Sorting Out Popular Justice," 42.
30. Lavon Archive, (4)-250-54-205 (Hebrew).
31. Trial no. 124, Lavon Archive, (4)-245-2-79 (Hebrew).
32. Also see, for example, the Litvak case, cited in De Vries, "The Making of Labour Zionism," 139-42.
33. Lavon Archive, (4)-250-72-1-2396 (3 Sept. 1926) (Hebrew).
34. Milchamtenu: A Publication of Po'aley Zion, (12 Jan. 1928) and (3 Feb. 1928) (Hebrew).
35. Lavon Archive, (4)-250-72-1-2398 (Hebrew).
36. Case 168/420, Sara Agi v. Jerusalem Workers Council, Lavon Archive, (4)-245-2-1 (22 Feb. 28) (Hebrew).
37. Decisions of the High Comrades Law Court, Jan. 1927-May 1928, Lavon Archive, (4)-245-2-1 (Hebrew).
38. Also see Case 218/420, Lavon Archive, (4)-245-2-1 (Hebrew).
39. Case 1/28, Solel-Boneh v. Moshe Shadmi and others, 8 Apr. 1929, Lavon Archive, 72-1-2399 and 208-1-48 (Hebrew).
40. Dr. Moshe Zmora, who later became a justice of Israel's Supreme Court, retained private practice alongside his capacity as one of the chief engineers of the Comrades Law. At a certain stage, he tried to enlist the private firm of Harry Sacher to the service of the Histadrut. The Sacher firm was the largest and most influential law firm in the country at that time. The Histadrut, according to Zmora's plan, was to become a full-time retainer of Zmora and Sacher. The legal fees were fixed by Zmora at 60EL per month, a hugh amount by the standards of the day. Zmora suggested that the fees would be paid jointly by the Acting Committee of the Histadrut and the Jaffa and Haifa Workers Councils. Ben-Gurion, the general secretary of the Histadrut, rejected the terms of agreement and canceled the suggested deal. See Lavon Archive, (4)-208-1-48 (Hebrew).
41. Letter of 21 Aug. 1929 and letter of response, 23 Aug. 1929. Lavon Archive, (4)-250-72-1, file 2475 (Hebrew).
42. State Archive, 76/P, box 635, file 212, 1923-1924 (Hebrew).
43. Lavon Archive, (4)-250-36-1, file 1852, letter of 18 Sept. 1929 (Hebrew).
44. See, for example, the protocol of 13 Dec. 1926, Lavon Archive, (4)-208-1-48 (Hebrew).
45. Lavon Archive, (4)-208-1-106 (Hebrew).
46. See also Stuart Henry, Private Justice: Towards Integrated Theorising in the Sociology of Law (London: Routledge, 1983).
47. Hayden, "Popular Use of Yugoslav Labor Courts"
48. Hayden, Social Courts.
49. Hayden, "Popular Use of Yugoslav Labor Courts. " I thank one of my anonymous reviewers for stressing this point and suggesting that, in general, discussions concerning the possibility of socialist justice must take account of the separation-of-powers model.
50. Peter Fitzpatrick, "The Impossibility of Popular Justice," in The Possibility of Popular Justice, 286-311.