On Wednesday 23 October, 2013, as part of its activities for the academic year 2013-2014, the Faculty of Law organized a meeting with the President Ralph Riachy, Judge and Vice-President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL), and former Professor at the Faculty of Law at USEK, in the presence of the Associate Dean Fr. Talal El Hachem and professors from the Faculty of Law.

Mrs. Wajd Ramadan, Mrs. Olga Kavran and Mrs. Dolly Doulany, representatives of the External Communications Office of the STL in Beirut also presented the work of the STL and answered questions from students.

This event was addressed to law students, as well as those interested in the topic of the conference.

The meeting began with a screening of an informative video entitled: “International Criminal Proceedings”, revealing the various international criminal tribunals, including the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda, the Special Court for Sierra Leone, and the Special Tribunal for Lebanon, explaining their modes of operation.

President Riachy then gave an instructive lecture about the international criminal proceedings, especially those related to the STL, and tackled several issues including the context of the establishment of the ad hoc criminal tribunals, the statutory dedication of an independent Prosecutor, the purpose of the STL and the work of these tribunals.

After the conference, a debate was initiated. The main topics discussed included the question of the legitimacy of the STL, the utility and efficiency of the variety of international tribunals, and STL’s definition of crimes of terrorism.