Lebanon’s Constitutional Council: Access Blocked to Protect the Consensus System?

Abstract

The Lebanese Constitutional Council is vested with the power of assessing the constitutionality of laws and annulling unconstitutional ones. All the other bodies of the State are obliged to apply the laws as long as they have not been declared unconstitutional. From the perspective of strategic litigation on questions of fundamental rights, in view of the limited competences of the Lebanese Constitutional Council to decide on constitution-ality of laws, this chapter discusses the historical background and reasons for the current situation of very limited control of the laws’ constitutionality. It sheds light on the prevailing political characteristics and perception of the Council’s role at his creation and shows the Council’ stance by examples of various political, legislative and its’ own Council’s decisions, arguing for the need not just to reform Lebanon’s Constitutional Council, but the perception and role it is driven into by the current political system of consensus.