The Special Tribunal for Lebanon ─ Law and Practice

This book provides a full analytical overview of the establishment and functioning of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, the newest and most controversial of the UN-sponsored international criminal courts. In 2005, Lebanese Prime Minister Rafic Hariri was assassinated in a huge blast that reverberated across Lebanon and the region. The Tribunal was established with a mandate to try the perpetrators of the Hariri killing, as well as those responsible for other killings that are 'connected' to this core crime. Individuals associated with the Hezbollah group have been indicted to be tried in the court in The Hague-but in their absence as their locations are unknown.

The Tribunal is the UN's first attempt at addressing terrorism in an international criminal court, and the first attempt to set up international trials following crimes committed in the Middle East region. The court's narrow mandate and unique procedures have led many to question what kind of precedent it will set in a volatile region. This book looks at how the court was established, its foundational principles based on the Statute of the International Criminal Court and Lebanese domestic law, and the possible further development of its case law. It provides an authoritiative guide to the procedure of the Tribunal,the status of the Registry, the rights of suspects and accused, trials in absentia, and the regulation of the conduct of counsel, drawing on comparisons to other international courts. The authors include those involved in setting up the court, prosecutors, defence counsel for the suspects, as well as judges and academic commentators who are experts on the issues covered in the book. They provide a probing insight into how the Tribunal came into being, its challenges, controversies, and its achievements to date.

Amal Alamuddin, Barrister, Doughty Street Chambers, London,Nidal Nabil Jurdi, Lecturer in International Law and Organizations, American University of Beirut,David Tolbert, President, International Center for Transitional Justice

Amal Alamuddin is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, London, specialising in international law, human rights, criminal law and extradition. She appears in both English and international courts and provides written advice to individuals and governments. Amal has recently acted as adviser to Kofi Annan, the Joint Special Envoy of the UN and Arab League on Syria; as counsel to the government of Cambodia in a territorial dispute at the International Court of Justice; and as legal advisor to the Royal Court of the Kingdom of Bahrain in connection with the Bahrain Independent Commission of Inquiry (BICI) investigating alleged human rights abuses in Bahrain. Amal also represented the head of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, in extradition proceedings in the UK and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuila Tymonshenko before the European Court of Human Rights. Amal previously served as legal adviser to the Prosecutor of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and as legal adviser to the head of UNIIIC in Beirut.

Nidal Nabil Jurdi holds a PhD in International Criminal Law and Human rights from University College Cork, National University of Ireland, Ireland. He lectures on International Law and Organizations at the American University of Beirut and is a visiting scholar at the Faculty of Law at McGill University, Canada, for the academic year 2013-2014. He is also a Human Rights officer at the UN Office of High Commissioner for Human Rights. He has published a number of academic articles, and books on the International Criminal Court (ICC), the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, United Nations International Independent Investigation Commission (UNIIIC) and human rights in Lebanon and the MENA region.


David Tolbert is currently president of the International Center for Transitional Justice. Previously he served as registrar (assistant secretary-general) of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon and prior to that was assistant secretary-general and special expert to the United Nations secretary-general on United Nations Assistance to the Khmer Rouge Trials. From 2004 to 2008 Mr. Tolbert served as deputy chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He had previously been the deputy registrar of the ICTY and at an earlier time served at the ICTY as chef de cabinet to President Gabrielle Kirk McDonald and Senior Legal Adviser, Registry, serving a total of 9 years at the ICTY. He also represented the ICTY in the discussions leading up to the creation of the ICC and the Rome Conference and served as an expert to the ICC Preparatory Committee Inter-Sessional meetings.