Lebanon 1926 (rev. 2004)

Lebanon is an independent state, with indivisible unity, and complete sovereignty. Its boundaries are the same defining it currently.

North: From the mouth of Al-Nahr Al-Kabir along a line following the course of the River to the point of its confluence with Wadi Khalid, its tributary, at the height of Jisr Al-Kamar.

East: The summit line separating Wadi Khalid from Wadi Al-Assi River (Oronte), crossing the villages of Muaissara, Harbata, Heit, Abish, Fissan at the height of the two villages of Brina and Matriba. This line follows the boundaries of Northern Baalbeck from the northeasterly side and the southeasterly side, then the boundaries of Baalbeck, Al-Bikaa, Hassbiya, and Eastern Rashiya.

South: The current southern boundaries of Sour and Marjayoun.

West: The Mediterranean Sea.

No part of the Lebanese territory may be alienated or ceded.

The boundaries of administrative areas may not be altered except according to a law.

The Grand Lebanon is a Republic, whose capital is Beirut.

The Lebanese flag is comprised of red, white, and red horizontal stripes. The cedar in green occupies the center of the white stripe. The size of the white stripe is equivalent to the size of both the red stripes. The cedar is in the center, with its apex touching the red upper stripe, and its base touching the red lower stripe. The size of the cedar is equivalent to a third of the size of the white stripe.

The Lebanese nationality and the manner in which it is acquired, retained and lost, shall be determined according to the law.

All Lebanese are equal before the law. They equally enjoy civil and political rights, and assume obligations and public duties without any distinction among them.

Personal freedom is guaranteed and protected by the law. No one can be arrested, jailed or suspended except according to the rules of the law. No offense can be determined and no penalty can be imposed except according to the law.

Freedom of conscience is absolute. In assuming the obligations of glorifying God, the Most High, the State respects all religions and creeds and safeguards the freedom of exercising the religious rites under its protection, without disturbing the public order. It also guarantees the respect of the system of personal status and religious interests of the people, regardless of their different creeds.

Education is free so long as it does not disturb the public order, does not violate the morals, and does not touch the dignity of any religion or creed. The rights of communities to establish their own private schools cannot be violated, provided that they comply with the general requirements laid down by the State with respect to public education.

The Arabic language is the official national language. The conditions under which the French language is to be used are determined by law.

Every Lebanese has the right to public employment, without any distinction, except on qualification and merit according to the conditions laid down by the law. A special code shall be established to safeguard the rights of employees in the areas to which they belong.

The freedom of opinion, expression through speech and writing, the freedom of the press, the freedom of assembly, and the freedom of association, are all guaranteed within the scope of the law.

The dwelling is inviolable. No one is entitled to enter therein except under the conditions and manners prescribed by the law.

The ownership is protected by the law. Ownership of any one cannot be expropriated except for reasons of public utility under the conditions prescribed by the law and upon fair compensation to him.

The Legislative Power is vested in one Chamber: The Chamber of Deputies.

The Executive Power is entrusted to the Council of Ministers, which shall exercise it according to the provisions of this Constitution.

The Chamber of Deputies and the Council of Ministers have the right to propose laws. A law cannot be published unless the Chamber of Deputies adopts it.

A Constitutional Council is established to review the constitutionality of the laws, and to decide on the disputes and protests resulting from the presidential and the representative elections.

The right to resort to this Council, with respect to watching the constitutionality of the laws, is due to the President of the Republic, the President of the Chamber of Deputies, and the Prime Minister, or to the members of the Chamber of Deputies, and to Heads of the legally recognized sects, with respect to personal affairs, freedom of belief and the exercise of religious rituals, and freedom of religious education. The rules concerning the organization, the functioning and the composition of the Council and the application to it are established by law.

The Judicial Power is vested in the Courts at various levels and jurisdictions, within a system prescribed by the law which provides the necessary guarantees to the Judges and litigants.

Conditions of judicial guarantee and its limits are prescribed by the law. Judges are independent in exercising their functions. Decisions and judgments are issued by all the courts, and are executed in the name of the Lebanese People.

Every Lebanese citizen, twenty-one years old, has a right to be an elector, pending meeting the requirements prescribed by the Electoral Law.

With the election of the first Chamber of Deputies on a national basis, not sectarian, a new Senate shall be established in which all religious communities are represented and whose power shall be limited to supreme national causes.

(Abrogated by the Constitutional Law promulgated on October 17, 1927.)

The Chamber of Deputies consists of elected representatives whose number and the manner of the election are determined by the electoral laws in effect.

Until the Chamber of Deputies issues an Electoral Law, outside the sectarian record, representative seats are distributed according to the following rules:

1. Equally between Christians and Moslems.
2. Proportional between the sects of both sides.
3. Proportional among districts.

Exceptionally, and once, representative seats vacant at the date of publishing this Law, and the seats created by the Electoral Law, are filled totally by appointment by a two- thirds majority of the National Détente Government, in implementation of the equality between the Christians and the Moslems, according to the National Détente Document. The Electoral Law determines the details of the application of this Article.

If the Chamber of Deputies is dissolved, the dissolution decision must call for conducting new elections. These elections are conducted according to Article 24 and within a period not exceeding three months.

Beirut is the center of the Government and the Chamber of Deputies.

The member of the Chamber of Deputies represents the whole nation. His electors cannot impose restrictions or conditions on his mandate.

A Representative may combine the representative and the ministerial functions. Ministers may be selected from the members of the Chamber of Deputies or from persons outside it, or from both.

The conditions under which the eligibility for representation is lost are determined by the law.

Representatives only have the right to decide on the validity of their mandate. The mandate of any Representative cannot be nullified except by a two-thirds majority of all members.

This Article is abrogated "de jure" immediately on establishing the Constitutional Council, and putting its law in effect.

Every meeting held by the Chamber outside the legal session is ipso facto null and in violation of the law.

The Chamber holds two ordinary sessions every year. The first session starts on Tuesday following the fifteenth of March, and its meetings continue to the end of May. The second session starts Tuesday following the fifteenth of October. Its meetings are devoted to the discussion of the budget and voting on it, before anything else. The session lasts to year-end.

Ordinary sessions begin and end, de jure, as scheduled by Article 32. The President of the Republic, in agreement with the Head of Government may convene the Chamber of Deputies to extraordinary sessions by a decree setting their opening, end, and agenda. The President of the Republic is required to convene the Chamber to extraordinary sessions in response to the request made by the absolute majority of all its members.

The Chamber cannot be validly convened unless attended by the majority of the members who constitute it. Decisions are taken by the majority of votes. In a tie, the project under discussion is rejected.

The Chamber meets publicly. However, it may convene in a closed meeting, if requested by the Government or five of its members. It may decide to rediscuss the same topic in a public meeting.

Votes are cast verbally, or by rising and sitting, except in the case of election, the opinions are expressed by secret ballot. As for the laws in general, and when the issue of confidence is polled, the opinions are always expressed by roll-call, and audible.

The right to a no confidence proposal is absolute to every Representative in ordinary sessions and extraordinary sessions. The proposal cannot be discussed except after five days at least from the date of submitting it to the Secretariat of the Chamber, and communicating it to the Ministers concerned.

No bill which has been rejected by the Chamber, may be reintroduced in the same session.

No member of the Chamber may be prosecuted because of the opinions and ideas he expresses during the term of his representation.

No Chamber member may be prosecuted or arrested, during the session, for committing a crime, unless authorized by the Chamber, except in case he is caught in the act.

If a seat becomes vacant in the Chamber, a successor must be elected within two months. The new member's mandate does not exceed the replaced old member's mandate term. However, if the seat becomes vacant in less than six months before the expiration of his mandate, no successor may be elected.

The general elections for the renewal of the Chamber members are conducted within the sixty days preceding the expiration of the mandate.

The Chamber establishes its own internal rules of procedure.

Every time a new Chamber is elected, it convenes under the presidency of the oldest member, while the youngest two members act as secretaries. The President and Vice-President are separately elected, for the term of the Chamber, by secret balloting and by the absolute majority of the votes cast. In a third ballot, the result is based upon the proportional majority. In case of equal votes, the oldest is considered elected.

In every election's renewal, and at the opening of the October session every year, the Chamber elects two secretaries by secret ballot according to the majority prescribed in the first paragraph of this Article.

The Chamber, a single time, has the right, two years after electing its President and Vice-President, in its first session, to withdraw the confidence from its President or its Vice-President, by a two-thirds majority of all its members based upon a petition signed by at least ten representatives. In this case, the Chamber must hold a meeting to fill out the vacant position.

Members of the Chamber do not have the right to vote, unless they are present in the meeting. Voting by proxy is not permitted.

The Chamber alone has the right to maintain internal order through its President.

Petitions to the Chamber must be submitted in writing. They may not be presented verbally or at the bar of the Chamber.

The remuneration of the members of the Chamber shall be determined by law.

One month at least and two months at most, before the expiration of the office term of the President of the Republic, the Chamber is convened by a summons of its President, to elect the new President of the Republic. If the Chamber is not summoned for this purpose, it convenes legally on the tenth day preceding the expiration date of the President's term in office.

If the presidency becomes vacant because of the death of the President, or his resignation, or any other reason, the Chamber convenes immediately by law to elect the successor, and if the presidency happened to be vacant, while the Chamber of Deputies is dissolved, the electoral bodies are summoned to convene without delay, and the Chamber is legally convened, immediately as soon as the elections have taken place.

The Chamber convened to elect the President of the Republic, is considered an electoral body, not a legislative body, and must proceed immediately for the election of the Head of State without any discussion, or any other matter.

The Constitution may be revised based upon an initiative by the President of the Republic, and so, the Government introduces a bill to the Chamber of Deputies.

The Constitution, also, may be revised based upon the initiative of the Chamber of Deputies. In this case, the process is as follows:

In the course of an ordinary session, the Chamber of Deputies has the right, based upon the initiative of at least ten of its members, to introduce a proposal to revise the Constitution by a two-thirds majority of all the members legally constituting the Chamber.

However, the matters and issues included in the proposal must be clearly defined and enumerated. The President of the Chamber, then, communicates this proposal to the Government, requesting that it drafts a bill for this purpose. If the Government approves the proposal of the Chamber by a two-thirds majority, it must prepare a draft law, and introduce it to the Chamber within four months. If it does not approve, it must return the decision to the Chamber for a further study. If the Chamber insists on it by a three-fourths majority of all the members constituting the Chamber legally, then the President of the Republic may either respond to the wish of the Chamber, or may ask the Council of Ministers to dissolve it and conduct new elections within three months. If the new Chamber insists upon the necessity of the amendment, then the Government must acquiesce and introduce the amendment proposal in the period of four months.

If an amendment proposal of the Constitution is introduced to the Chamber, it must confine to the debate, until it is voted upon before any other action. However, it cannot debate or vote except on matters and issues specifically and clearly determined in the proposal which had been introduced to it.

When an amendment proposal of the Constitution is introduced to the Chamber, it cannot discuss it or vote upon it, unless a two-thirds majority of the members legally constituting the Chamber are present. Voting must be in the same majority.

The President of the Republic must promulgate the Law relating to the Constitutional amendment in the same manner and conditions required for the promulgation and publication of the ordinary laws. He has the right to ask the Chamber to reconsider the proposal another time, during the time limit for the promulgation, and after notifying the Council of Ministers. Voting upon it is, also, by a two-thirds majority.

The Supreme Council, whose mission is to impeach the President and Ministers, consists of seven Deputies elected by the Chamber of Deputies, and eight of the highest-rank Lebanese Judges according to the judicial hierarchy, or according to seniority in case of their equal ranks. They convene under the presidency of the Judge with the highest rank. The impeachment decisions are issued by the Supreme Council by a majority of ten votes. The impeachment proceedings therein are determined by a special law.

Public taxes are imposed. In the Lebanese Republic, no tax can be established or levied, except by a comprehensive law whose rules are applied to all the Lebanese territory without exception.

No tax may be amended or eliminated except by a law.

Every year, at the beginning of the October session, the Government introduces to the Chamber of Deputies, a Budget including State expenditures and its revenues for the next year. The Budget is voted upon item by item.

During the debate of the budget and proposals of additional and extraordinary appropriations, the Chamber may not increase the proposed appropriations in the draft budget, or in the rest of the mentioned proposals, whether in the form of an amendment introduced, or through initiative. However, at the end of the debate, it may decide through initiative, laws creating new expenditures.

An extraordinary appropriation may not be opened, except by a special law. However, if unforeseen circumstances create urgent expenditures, the President of the Republic issues a decree, based upon a decision made by the Council of Ministers, to open extraordinary or additional appropriations, and by transfer of appropriations in the budget, without exceeding the upper limit determined in the budget law. These measures must be submitted to the Chamber for approval in its first ensuing session.

If the Chamber of Deputies does not decide definitely in the matter of the budget proposal before the expiration of the session devoted for its examination, then the President of the Republic, with the agreement of the Head of Government, convenes the Chamber immediately to an extraordinary session lasting to the end of January to continue the budget examination. If this extraordinary session is over without definitely deciding on the budget proposal, then the Council of Ministers may take a decision based upon which the President of the Republic issues a decree adapting and putting into force the proposal in the form it was introduced to the Chamber. The Council of Ministers may not use this right, unless the budget proposal was introduced to the Chamber at least fifteen days prior to its session.

However, during that extraordinary session, taxes, costs, duties, imposts and other revenues are collected as before. The budget of the previous year is used as a basis, adding to it the newly-opened additional permanent appropriations, and excluding from it the eliminated permanent appropriations. The Government receives the January expenditures of the new year based upon the provisional twelfth.

The accounts of the final financial administration for every year must be submitted to the Chamber for approval, before publishing the budget of the second year which follows that year. A special law will be made to establish the Bureau of Accounts.

No public debt, nor obligation to spend funds from the Budget, may be contracted except according to law.

No obligation nor concession to exploit the natural resources of the country, nor any service of public utility, nor any monopoly may be granted except according to law and for a limited time.