The Legal Agenda

Legal Agenda is a Beirut-based non-profit research and advocacy organization with offices in Lebanon and Tunisia and correspondents in several other Arab countries. It was established in December 2009 by a group of legal professionals, scholars, and human rights activists who institutionalized their efforts to build a critical and multidisciplinary approach to law and justice in Arab countries with a special focus on political, civil, social, and economic rights.  Since its inception, the Legal Agenda has conducted analytical research on legal and judicial developments in the Arab region from a critical and multidisciplinary perspective. Its research examines how laws are produced and applied and the relationship between law and social changes. The Legal Agenda has three different media publications, namely The Legal Agenda–Lebanon, The Legal Agenda–Tunisia, and The Little Agenda magazines, in addition to its website. Via these platforms, the Legal Agenda contributes to public debate with the results of its research, investigative journalism, and watchdog activities. Through strategic litigation and advocacy activities, the Legal Agenda promotes legal and social change via the courts and public institutions. In 2014, the Legal Agenda established the Civil Observatory for an Independent and Transparent Judiciary in Lebanon, which monitors and analyses court cases, trials, and judicial policies concerning the various actors in the justice system, such as judges, lawyers, litigants, and judicial assistants. In 2019, the Legal Agenda launched the Parliament Observatory in Lebanon, which monitors and analyzes legislative activity and practices and works to ensure access to legislative information and improve the legislature’s work.

The Roadmap to an Independent Judiciary

The October 17 revolution sparked an awakening in the judicial landscape. After an initial indifference towards the judiciary, there was a common perception during the revolution’s early days of the priority of judiciary’s independence, given its central role in combating the corruption that has plagued the state and in recovering plundered funds. All anti-corruption laws […]

Lebanon’s Parliament During a Year of Collapses and Crises: Lack of Vision, Populism, Inertia, and Buying Time for a Crumbling House of Cards

Legislative Lethargy and Low Productivity The Parliament held 8 sessions during the period between October 17th, 2019 and the end of 2020. The four legislative sessions included 172 different topics1. Urgent and repeated proposed laws represented 86% of the proposals on the Parliament’s agenda, i.e. the proposals that directly reach the General Assembly, without being […]