Israel's Supreme Court has overturned a core element of the controversial judicial reform. A razor-thin majority of eight of the 15 judges were in favor of annulling an amendment to the law passed in July. Amendment deprived the court of the opportunity to take action against "inappropriate" decisions by the government, the prime minister or individual ministers. Critics had warned that this could encourage corruption and the arbitrary filling of important posts.Never before in Israel's history has a comparable law been struck down by the Supreme Court.