Ibrahim Najjar

Early life and education

Najjar was born in 1941 in Tripoli, North Lebanon, and is an adherent of the Greek Orthodox Church.

After high school at St. Joseph's College Antoura and the French Lycée in Beirut, he studied at the Université Saint-Joseph in Beirut and in France. Ibrahim Najjar is the author of a thesis (1966) on the "potestative rights" in the French law, and of two major law books on Family laws (Successions, wills and gifts) in Lebanon, together with a law Dictionary (French Arabic and Arabic French). In 2016 Ibrahim Najjar has published three law books on French private law and Lebanese law studies.

Career and views

Najjar is close to the March 14 movement and the Lebanese Forces. He was formerly a Kataeb party senior official; he founded and presided the its students bureau in early 1960s. He was the head of the Kataeb’s Koura district bureau from 1973 to 1978. Since 1966, Najjar is also a law professor at Saint Joseph University.

His numerous writings in the famous Dalloz Encyclopedia, the Dalloz Bulletin and the French Revue Trimestrielle de droit civil are well known. Najjar is the owner and editor of The Lebanese Review of Arab And International Arbitration since 1996; he also publishes the Saint Joseph Faculty of Law Journal, Proche Orient Etudes Juridiques, since 1975.

The National medal for Human rights was attributed to Najjar in 2010 after his draft law to abolish death penalty in Lebanon. Najjar was also elected to get the Medal of honor of the St Joseph University. In June 2013, he was made Officer of the Legion of Honor by the French President of Republic; in July 2015 he was granted the decoration of Commandor of the Spanish order of Isabelle the Catholic Since 2011 Najjar is member of the International Commission against the Death Penalty.

Since June 29, 2016, Najjar is emeritus professor at the Faculty of Law of the Saint Joseph University, Lebanon. In June 2017 he was appointed as President of the Disciplinary Board of the Special Tribunal For Lebanon for a period of two years.

As teacher of law, he was tutor for the previous minister of interior and municipalities, Ziad Baroud. Najjar was appointed minister of justice in July 2008 to the cabinet headed by then prime minister Fouad Siniora. In November 2009, he was again named as justice minister in the cabinet led by then prime minister Saad Hariri.

His action at justice ministry during three years is considered as one of the most fruitful period for the judiciary and the promotion of draft laws in many fields (arbitrary detention, human rights, successions and wills, Lebanese citizenship for the generations of Lebanese ascent, the transformation of the justice ministry into a ministry for freedom and human rights). Two major judiciary permutations were conducted by him in 2009 and 2010 after having been frozen during several years, and the judges legal fees were almost doubled in 2011 in order to upgrade their status. Najjar's tenure ended in June 2011, and was succeeded by Shakib Qortbawi as justice minister.