On March 23, 2012, The Faculty of Law at The Holy Spirit University of Kaslik organized a conference entitled “A Lawyer Minister’s View of Justice”, given by H.E. Mr. Chakib Kortbawi, Minister of Justice.

In his opening speech, which followed the Lebanese National Anthem, Rev. Fr. Talal Hachem, Dean of The Faculty of Law, underlined the fact that The Faculty of Law had been striving, ever since its foundation, for the development of the human being in various fields, through the establishment of humanitarian, ethical, social, intellectual and scientific protagonists who contributed to promoting human values.

H.E. Mr. Kortbawi divided his conference into three distinct parts; he spoke about how judges viewed themselves, how people viewed judges, and, finally, how he regarded the judiciary. He noted that he had been working “…for forty-two years as a lawyer and a former President of the Bar, and I know a lot about the problems of the judicial system and what is happening with the judges, lawyers and employees. But when I became a Minister, things turned out to be much more difficult than I could have imagined”.

Concerning the first part of the conference, which detailed how judges viewed themselves, Mr. Kortbawi stated that “… there are a few judges who consider themselves as ‘Half Gods’ since they speak on the behalf of Lebanese people; they know their rights but overlook their responsibilities. […]There are others who treat lawyers with superiority, despite the fact that lawyers should be considered as an essential component of the judiciary. […] However, the majority of the judges are aware of their rights and duties and recognize that the judicial system represented an independent authority. It has to be also recognized that judges were facing a lot of pressure from politicians, sectarians and powerful people”.

During the second part of the conference, which dealt with how people viewed judges, Mr. Kortbawi highlighted that there was a generalization about the judicial system in Lebanon as being corrupted. “There is a deep conviction among people that every verdict is issued based on the interference of a certain political or sectarian leader, and this is so untrue. I have been working in the field for forty-two years and I won 85% of the verdicts without any kind of interference or pressure”, Mr. Kortbawi stated.

Last but not least, Mr. Kortbawi, in his role as lawyer, former President of the Bar and Minister of Justice, explained his own views concerning the law courts. He considered that “… today we are witnessing the repercussions of the events that took place earlier in the 90s, wherein the judicial system was exploited for political reasons”. He also indicated that “… the delay in the issue of verdicts is another crisis that the courts are suffering from, and that it is unacceptable to keep lawsuits ongoing for years without verdicts”, considering that delayed justice is a synonym for anti-justice. Finally, Mr. Kortbawi pointed out that fourteen judges had recently been sent to The Disciplinary Board for Judges.