Virtual Tribunals Debuts the Special Tribunal for Lebanon Collection

When the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) closed down at the end of 2023, historians and practitioners of international law were left to wonder: Who will preserve its legacy? Just seven months later, an interdisciplinary team from Stanford University is gearing up to provide an answer.

On 17 July 2024, the Day of International Criminal Justice, Stanford’s Virtual Tribunals initiative debuted the first edition of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon collection, consisting of the 64 files judged most vital to safeguarding the memory and legal precedent of this unique international tribunal, as well as an archived version of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon website (captured on December 7, 2023, thanks to the quick response by Stanford Libraries’ web archiving team). STL was the first tribunal to have an independent defense office, the first to hold corporations liable for their actions, and the first to seriously engage with the crime of terrorism. Now, the records of these “firsts” will be digitally preserved and made publicly available online for free via Virtual Tribunals, a digital exhibit created and maintained by Stanford Libraries and the Stanford Center for Human Rights and International Justice.

The Special Tribunal for Lebanon emerged in the wake of a tragedy deemed too complex to be tried by the often-criticized Lebanese judiciary. In the early afternoon of 14 February 2005, a massive car bomb exploded near the St. George Hotel in downtown Beirut in Lebanon. Passing by at the moment of detonation was the target, the former Prime Minister of Lebanon, Rafiq Hariri. Twenty-one others lost their lives with him. Hundreds more sustained horrific injuries. 

Condemnation from the United Nations Security Council came the following day. In its statement, the Security Council urged “… the Lebanese Government to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of this heinous terrorist act.” So set in motion a complex negotiation between the Security Council, the United Nations Secretary General, and the Lebanese government to create a special court to investigate this and a series of other bombings aimed at Lebanese political figures. This culminated in Security Council Resolution 1757, which brought into being the Special Tribunal for Lebanon. 

The Tribunal was a unique court, one that would go on to pioneer several new concepts in international law. Based in the Netherlands, its staff was drawn from both Lebanon and other countries across the world. In its chambers, it applied standard Lebanese criminal procedure, interpreted consistently witha international standards. It was hoped that this hybrid tribunal, international in part, domestic in part, could, in its fusion, achieve the best of both legal systems: the high-minded legitimacy of international law and the practicality of domestic law. 

Through the work of the tribunal, as well as a parallel United Nations investigation, significant evidence of an organized effort to kill Prime Minister Hariri and others was uncovered. This led to the tribunal being the first international tribunal to consider and engage with the crime of terrorism. Four men were ultimately convicted of perpetrating the bombing and sentenced to life imprisonment. They remain fugitives from justice. Prior to the completion of the case, Lebanese journalists and news outlets published a series of exposé articles on the proceedings, leading to a series of contempt-of-court cases. This would be the first time that corporations would be held responsible for their actions by an international court. 

The Tribunal shut on 31 December 2023, its archives transferred to the United Nations Archives and Records Management Section. The Tribunal’s website, which had made all non-confidential documents available, ceased to operate on the same day, preventing readers and researchers from accessing the documents thereafter. The history of the Tribunal risked not being accessible openly on the web, a common fate for independent tribunals that close on completion of their mandate. 

Prior to the closure, however, the Tribunal concluded an agreement with Stanford University to digitize and make available its full body of non-classified records via the Virtual Tribunals initiative. Already a digital custodian for the records of World War II war crimes trials and the Special Panels for Serious Crimes in East Timor, Virtual Tribunals aims to discover, digitize, and display the records of historically significant international criminal tribunals for free, forever.

The July 17th release of the 64 most essential files will be followed by the rest of the 15,000 documents produced during the Tribunal’s twelve-year lifespan.  The documents are encoded with an extensive array of metadata and are fully text-searchable, making discovery easy, and the documents will be available in the Tribunal’s three working languages: English, French, and Arabic. 

The purpose of Virtual Tribunals is both to preserve the history of international law and improve contemporary justice by connecting the courts of today to the lessons of the past. In an age of rampant misinformation and historical revisionism, that mission has never been more urgent. As the Special Tribunal for Lebanon moves from a live court to a historical one, so its records join that mission.