Designing a New Corporate Code for Israel

It is not very often that the preparation of modern statutes, let alone codes, is entrusted to the sole guardianship of a single expert. We live in an era of committees, where collective wisdom reigns supreme. It was therefore with great awe, and indeed timidity, that I decided to accept, in the summer of 1982, an assignment, entrusted to me by the Ministry of Justice in Jerusalem, to prepare and redraft a brand new Corporate Code for the State of Israel.Now, at the expiration of four years of intense study, the first Draft of the New Bill has been submitted for governmental (and later, parliamentary) approval. It is already the subject of a formal legislative procedure at the Ministry of Justice;' thus, it has not escaped the fate of other traveaux preparatoires,as it is hammered at, polished and refined by committees of experts. Nevertheless, one hopes that at the end of the tunnel it should reemerge retaining its original flavor, without, however, being marred by some of its initial faults.As the main features of this embryonic statute are already clearly visible, the purpose of this paper is to delineate some of its more interesting innovations. There are three different aspects that must be reckoned with in any work of codification: Form, substance, and the spirit of the proposed law. Accordingly, this paper is organized to address, respectively, these three complementary components.