Mrs. Lara KARAM BOUSTANY

Faculty of Law and Political Science

Professor

(+961) 1 421 000 ext lara.boustany@usj.edu.lb

Lara Karam Boustany is a former University President (University La Sagesse) and a Law Professor at Saint Joseph University with more than 30 years’ experience in the academic field. She holds a Ph.D. in Law from Panthéon-Assas University Paris II. She has occupied multiple key positions during her career on top of being the first woman and lay person to be appointed as president of an eminent Christian university in Lebanon. She has also been elected as President of the Conference of Rectors in the Middle East (2021-2023 CONFREMO), that comprises more than 50 universities and presidents of universities from the Middle East and the GCC countries. Professor Boustany is a board member of the International Federation of Catholic Universities and a board member of various French and Lebanese associations working in the field of Justice, Academia and Health. She also acted as an expert, representing Lebanon and the Arab countries, within the UNESCO in the International Expert Group in charge of advising the Organization on the revision of the landmark 1974 Recommendation concerning Education for International Understanding, Cooperation and Peace and Education relating to Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms. Professor Boustany has also acted as legal and diplomatic advisor to the Minister of Justice in Lebanon, working on Laws and bilateral treaties related to detainees, extraditions, prisons, women’s rights, Law of the Sea and various legal questions. She represented the Ministry of Justice and the Republic of Lebanon at the Human Rights Council in Geneva in 2010 during Lebanon’s first Universal Periodic Review. She formed, as expert appointed by Westminster Foundation, MP’s assistants to legal drafting. Professor Boustany is specialized in Constitutional and Administrative Law. She is the author of a legal book published in France and has to her credit several articles published in various fields of Law. She has also drafted several laws, bills and legal studies mainly : the Law on Public Private Partnerships, the Law on Maritime Zones, more than 8 bills relating to the exploitation of the maritime zones ranging from the environment to the offshore work and the right of innocent passage in the Lebanese Sea, Decrees on Economic Free Zones to boost the economy, studies on the port of Beirut, Lebanon's electricity, the question of immigration, cluster munitions, the implementation of Resolution 1701. She has also been appointed as an expert in the preparation of tenders and contracts for the Lebanese State in the energy and renewable energy sector.

Highest degree : PHD in Law - Panthéon-Assas ( Paris II) - France