Inadequate Adoption of Environmental Standards
"Globes" Israel's Business NewspaperTzvi Levinson and Gil Dror, Advocates July 2005
Adopting foreign environmental standards in Israel is problematic since most of the times the reference in the Israeli legislation is made to foreign standards to the updates of these standards, not to a certain dated and known edition. Therefore it is difficult to know when the changes occurred and to abide by them. Other problems are caused by publication on the internet and at public libraries which may not be reliable sources and by adopting standards in uncommon languages which may lead to misunderstandings in their interpretation.
The article reviews the legal situation in specific laws and recommends that the Israeli legislator should refer to a specific edition of these standards, attaching their original version with an official translation. A systematic and gradual adoption should become a strategic target while enabling the legislator to exercise his own judgment and to properly adjust the standards to the Israeli market.