The Peace Palace Library is grateful to professor Abou Kasm for his kind book donations.
Book Abstract: Lebanon Between State Legitimacy and International Legitimacy
Published by Dar An-Nahar (Beirut 2025), Lebanon Between State Legitimacy and International Legitimacy: Writings on the Pandemic of Suffering and Ordeal (2019–2025) by Prof. Dr. Antonios ABOU KASM is a definitive international law reference for understanding the contemporary crises paralyzing Lebanon and the broader MENA region. Compiling a rigorous selection of academic essays, legal analyses, and press interviews, this volume diagnoses the multidimensional collapse of the Lebanese State through the lenses of domestic constitutional law, public international law and international human rights law.
The book deconstructs the structural erosion of the Lebanese Republic, tracking its descent into a “façade democracy.” The author critiques systemic constitutional failures, institutional paralysis, and the bankruptcy of the central bank, offering legal mechanisms for recovering looted public funds deposited abroad. Addressing the “twilight of justice” following the Beirut Port Explosion (2020), the text contextualizes regional impunity alongside the global challenges facing the international criminal justice and the implementation of the International humanitarian law.
Crucially, this work serves as an indispensable international law authority on Lebanon sovereign integrity, detailing the strategic implementation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1559 and 1701 among other UN instruments. It provides critical legal analyses of current high-stakes boundary disputes, including the maritime border negotiations with Israel and land-border frictions with Syria. Furthermore, it offers a rigorous legal evaluation of the Syrian displacement crisis under international refugee law.
Supported by an expansive appendix of primary sources—including historical treaties, maps, Lebanese agreements with Israel (the 2022 Maritime Agreement and the 2024 Declaration on the Cessation of Hostilities)—this book balances its grim diagnosis with practical pathways for national survival rooted in administrative decentralization and the rule of law. It remains an essential reference for scholars, diplomats, and legal practitioners navigating state fragility and international relations in the Middle East.
Book donation 2
Fath, J, with postface by A. Abou Kasm, La guerre, le droit et la paix: comment déchiffrer les mutations de l'ordre mondial, Vulaines-sur-Seine, Croquant, 2025.
Abstract:
"L'ambition de ce livre est double. D'abord aller aux sources historiques pertinentes pour mieux comprendre ce que l'on entend par les concepts de guerre, de droit et de paix. Dire ainsi de quoi l'on parle au regard de l'histoire. Et montrer en quoi ces concepts si généraux, et trop souvent banalisés ou instrumentalisés, traduisent au fil du temps long des constructions sociales et des questions de civilisation. Cet ouvrage s'attache en même temps à décrypter la complexité des mutations actuelles de l'ordre international, dans un contexte de militarisation, de guerres et de risques majeurs. Avec le 80è anniversaire de l'ONU en 2025, les questions de la sécurité pour les peuples, de la paix et du droit sont posées avec force et dans l'urgence. Il s'agit là d'un défi global existentiel comme le sont aussi d'autres enjeux mondiaux écologiques, sociaux, technologiques, démocratiques... Les réponses politiques qui leur seront apportées conditionnent l'avenir de notre monde et de son humanité."
Antonios ABOU KASM, is a Professor of International Law at the Lebanese University and a Counsel pleading before international courts.