The entrance to the Constitutional Council in Hadath. (Credit: NNA)
The Constitutional Council on Monday suspended the law adopted by Parliament in early December concerning the suspension of all legal and contractual deadlines until March 31, 2025, following an appeal for invalidation filed by ten MPs from the Free Patriotic Movement (FPM).
According to the state-run National News Agency (NNA), the Constitutional Council General Assembly suspended Law 328, which had been published in the Official Gazette on Dec. 5, until it reviews and decides the appeal of the FPM MPs.
The law was first suspended on Oct. 8, 2023, the first day of the war between Hezbollah and Israel following Hamas' Oct. 7 attack, until March 31, 2025, "all legal and contractual deadlines granted to persons under public and private law to exercise their rights of any nature, whether formal, procedural, customs or having an impact on the substance of the law."
The appeal for invalidation, a procedure that requires the signature of ten parliamentarians to be admissible, was presented at the end of last week by Cesar Abi Khalil, Georges Atallah, Ghassan Atallah, Salim Aoun, Nada Boustany, Jimmy Jabbour, Charbel Maroun, Nicolas Sehnaoui, Samer Toum, and Edgar Traboulsi. After filing the appeal, Abi Khalil stated that the appeal criticized the way the law was informed, which “violated the internal regulations of Parliament,” as well as the ambiguity of the text, which violates the principle of clarity of laws. According to the MP, this could “create arbitrariness in determining the deadlines granted and undermine the constitutional principle of equality of all before the law.”