- The Restriction of the Military Courts’ Jurisdiction to Military Personnel and Improving Enforcement of Administrative Courts’ Decisions in Lebanon
Despite its exceptional status, the military judiciary in Lebanon has very broad powers that need to be reconsidered in two ways: the first is the trial of civilians; the second is its incompatibility with the conditions of a fair trial in terms of transparency, neutrality, and equality among citizens.
In comparison with two Arab countries, the Arab Republic of Egypt and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, JUSTICIA suggested in its study, with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation a project for an integrated vision for the typical military judiciary in Lebanon, providing the litigants with independent and impartial judiciary trials, while respecting the rights of the defense and the necessary explanations of the judgment.
In order to enable the Lebanese Administrative Court to enforce its decisions and implement them, JUSTICIA has drafted a study and launched a program with the support of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung Foundation where the implementation process of the verdicts of the State Council was mapped and analyzed, the current structure and the latest circumstances that occurred in the State Council, and the independence of the judges of the State Council are implemented. A fair enforcement system is just as important as reliable judicial decision-making in a system where governmental powers are supposed to be controlled by the administrative Court (State Council). In the same context, the enforcement of decisions against administrative agencies and officials faces even larger obstacles than the enforcement of decisions against private entities. This is the reason why the Prime Minister in person pledged on 18/09/2014 to implement the decision of the Administrative Court concerning the fate of more than 600 Lebanese missing in Syrian jails since the 1970s.
In addition, concerning the employee’s appointments, 35 decisions of the Administrative Court were unapplied to date. As shown, this leads to a typical violation of the judicial independence principle due to the clear contradiction between its judicial consulting role for the Lebanese state in administrative issues and its role as an Administrative Court. Furthermore, the decisions of the administrative Court are not necessarily enforceable in practice, since they are left up to the goodwill of the state. As a result, there is a definite need for a review of the implementation tools of the Court’s decisions where public agencies are involved.
- The KNOW YOUR RIGHTS series of guides on Lebanese law assist Lebanese citizens in managing their legal risks by clarifying their rights and obligations. To be equal under the law, one must know his or her rights. Because Lebanese Law is complex, those who cannot afford effective legal representation are at serious disadvantage.
Ignorantia juris non excusat, Latin for “ignorance of the law does not excuse”, is a legal principle providing that a person is not excused for violating the law merely because he or she was unaware of it. Lebanon also adopts the maxim of Roman law: nemo censetur ignorare legem or “nobody is considered to ignore the law.” Thus, knowledge of all laws is imputed to everyone. But these maxims assume that the law in question has been properly published and distributed. Unfortunately, this is not the case in Lebanon. Here, the abundance of legislation and amendments in the agenda of the Parliament and the Council of Ministries make it very difficult for the average person to be aware of the law.
Consequently, the Lebanese legal system presents challenges for lower and middle class citizens because many times they find themselves in court without the necessary information or know-how to argue their positions effectively.
The objective of the KNOW YOUR RIGHTS project is to provide the public with tools to help them better understand their rights and obligations-thus ensuring transparency in the administration of the law. The guides relate to key areas of public life like employment rights, taxpayer’s rights, patient’s rights, municipal rights, bank customer rights, and business and industrial rights.
Although other civil society organizations have produced informational booklets on some similar subjects, JUSTICIA’s guides take the reader a step further as they provide specific advice on issues that may help the reader avoid the perils of litigation. Copies of the guides are available at no charge. They may also be downloaded from this website.
