Barak, Aharon

(1936- )

   Born in Lithuania, he immigrated to Palestine in 1947. He studied law, economics, and international relations at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, receiving an M.A. in law in 1958 and a doctorate in law in 1963. Appointed professor of law at Hebrew University in 1968, he was named dean of the university's law faculty in 1974 and was awarded the Israel Prize in legal sciences in 1975. In that same year, he succeeded Meir Shamgar as attorney general, a position he held until 1978. Part of Israel's legal team at the Camp David talks in 1978, he was instrumental in crafting key provisions of the peace accords with Egypt. Appointed a justice of the Supreme Court of Israel in 1978, he became deputy president of the court in 1993 and president of the court on 13 August 1995, succeeding Shamgar. Barak was instrumental in promoting the Supreme Court's increased activism and the "constitutional revolution" experienced in Israel in the 1990s. Several of his judgments, especially with regard to the balance between Halacha and secular law, made him the object of much derision, including threats to his personal security, emanating primarily from the haredi (ultra-Orthodox) sector of Israeli society. Barak retired from the court in September 2006. Barak resumed his academic career upon retirement from the bench.