October 13, 2026
The Constitutional Council, in a landmark decision issued on October 12, 2026, resolved the appeal submitted by representatives of the “Strong Lebanon” bloc affiliated with the Free Patriotic Movement against General Amnesty Law No. 70/2026. The Council maintained the law in principle, refusing to invalidate it in its entirety, but it ruled to invalidate parts of it and subject other articles to binding interpretive reservations.
In this context, constitutional expert Dr. Adel Yameen confirmed, in an interview with the “Lebanon Debate” website, that adopting interpretive reservations falls within the powers of the Constitutional Council to ensure the compatibility of texts with the Constitution, indicating that these reservations represent binding rules for judicial and administrative authorities and are not merely recommendations.
Yameen explained that the partial invalidation of some of the terms of the law does not require its re-presentation to the House of Representatives or its approval again, as the effect is limited to the exclusion of unconstitutional texts while the rest of the law remains in force and is applied according to the formula upon which the constitutional decision was settled.
The constitutional expert stated that the decision resulted in narrowing the scope of beneficiaries of the general amnesty law and expanding the circle of exceptions, given that the amnesty is an exception to the general rules of prosecution and punishment, which requires its interpretation within narrow constitutional limits.
Yameen concluded by emphasizing that the decisions of the Constitutional Council are final and not subject to any means of review or appeal again, which establishes its decisive role in monitoring the constitutionality of laws and imposing adherence to their content on all authorities.
