LEBANON Trends and Developments Contributed by: Zeina Obeid and Lea Maalouf, Obeid & Partners
tion “reinforces the impartiality required of judges by protecting them from pressure or temptation in the course of issuing rulings”. The law has not yet entered into force. The draft law includes a series of amendments related to the composition of the Supreme Judicial Council, the organisation of the judiciary, the independence of judges and their freedom of expression and asso- ciation. A few of these key amendments are outlined below. The Supreme Judicial Council, the country’s highest judicial body, is composed of ten members. Prior to the reform bill, eight members were appointed by decree, including three members who served ex officio by vir- tue of their positions: the First President of the Court of Cassation (President), the Public Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation (Vice President) and the President of the Judicial Inspection Authority (Member), while the remaining two members were elected by the presi- dents of the chambers of the Court of Cassation. Under the new draft law, four of the ten members are now to be elected by members of the judiciary, four serve ex officio and are appointed by decree – namely, the First President of the Court of Cassation, the Pub - lic Prosecutor at the Court of Cassation, the President of the Judicial Inspection Authority and a fourth mem- ber whose position remains under consideration but is expected to be the President of the Judicial Studies Institute. The remaining two are to be selected by the eight sitting members of the Council. The members of the Supreme Judicial Council will serve a non-renew- able five-year term. The draft law recognises judges’ rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association. Neverthe- less, judges are required to notify the President of the Supreme Judicial Council at least 48 hours in advance of any media appearance, intended solely for notifi- cation purposes. Further, Article 53 of the draft law provides that, “judges are independent in carrying out their work” and “may not be moved, assessed, disciplined or suspended from the judiciary except in accordance with the scope of the law”.
A notable amendment introduced under the draft law is the principle of judicial irremovability, which guar- antees that judges may not be transferred from their positions without their consent, except as otherwise provided by law. Article 77 of the draft stipulates that “a judge may not be suspended except in accord- ance with the law and may not be moved from their position within four years, without their consent”. This safeguard protects judges from external interference and is fundamental to ensuring the independence of the judiciary. In addition, a judge may not remain in the same position for more than five years and must thereafter be reassigned to an equal or higher post, unless subject to disciplinary measures. While the reform has been broadly welcomed as a positive and long-overdue development toward pro- moting accountability and transparency within the judiciary, the law contains a worrying provision, Arti- cle 42, which grants the Cassation Public Prosecutor – ie, the highest-ranking public prosecutor, the power to order any lower-level public prosector to halt pro- ceedings in any case. This authority vested in the Cassation Public Prosecutor centralises prosecutorial discretion and creates a potential avenue for undue influence over ongoing investigations. Furthermore, such authority stands in tension with the raison d’être of the law, whose very purpose is to safeguard judicial independence, including that of Public Prosecution judges. It is relevant to point out that, in accordance with Arti- cle 57 of the Lebanese Constitution, the President of the Republic has exercised his constitutional right to request that Parliament reconsider the draft law. Therefore, the legislation remains pending, and its ulti- mate fate will depend on the outcome of Parliament’s review in the coming months. Amendments to the Law Regulating the Lebanese Legal Profession At the end of September 2025, the Bar Council at the Beirut Bar Association (BBA) adopted a practi- cally noteworthy amendment to the Law Regulating the Legal Profession No 8/70, pertaining to the forma- tion of civil professional companies under Article 83 of the Law.
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