Procedures
First instance and appeal courts under a French-modelled code
Civil claims are heard by single judges or chambers of first instance, appealed to courts of appeal, and reviewed by the Court of Cassation. The 1983 Code of Civil Procedure follows French structure closely.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — National, with courts organised by governorate.
- Deadline — Appeal: thirty days from notification of the judgment
- Deadline — Cassation: two months from notification of the appeal judgment
Governing law
- Code of Civil Procedure, Legislative Decree No. 90 of 1983
- Articles 762-821 — arbitration
In practice
Lebanese procedure is the closest thing in the region to French practice, and Lebanese commercial law scholarship has historically served the wider Arab world. Arbitration provisions in the 1983 code, together with New York Convention membership, made Beirut a regional arbitration centre for decades. The current constraint is not doctrinal but institutional: the economic collapse from 2019 has degraded court functioning through judicial strikes over salaries, and the practical effect of currency collapse on judgment values — where a debt fixed in Lebanese pounds became nearly worthless — has generated litigation about the currency of obligations that has no clean statutory answer.