After the Revolution

Abstract

The man who embraces a new paradigm at an early stage must often do so in defiance of the evidence provided by problem-solving. He must, that is, have faith that the new paradigm will succeed with the many large problems that confront it, knowing only that the older paradigm has failed with a few.Only a brief interval separated the signing into law of the two Basic Laws of 1992 and the rhetorical elevation of that moment to revolutionary significance. However, use of the term “constitutional revolution” to describe the addition of the Basic Laws on Freedom of Occupation and Human Dignity and Freedom to the corpus of Israeli fundamental law was destined to have more than rhetorical significance. Had the characterization been made by someone other than the next President of the Supreme Court, it might have attracted a modicum of public attention before fading from view, perhaps to be remembered only as a felicitous example of wishful thinking.