Lara karam Boustany

Lara Karam Boustany is a former university president (La Sagesse University) and a law professor at Saint Joseph University in Beirut. Holding a doctorate in law from Panthéon-Assas University Paris II, she has over 30 years of experience in academia. Throughout her career, she has held numerous key positions and was notably the first woman and first layperson appointed president of a prominent Christian university in Lebanon.

She was also elected president of the Conference of Rectors of the Middle East (CONFREMO 2021–2023), which brings together over 50 universities and university presidents from the Middle East and Gulf Cooperation Council countries. Professor Boustany is a member of the board of directors of the International Federation of Catholic Universities and serves on the boards of various French and Lebanese associations working in the fields of justice, education, and health. She has represented Lebanon and Arab countries as an expert at UNESCO, contributing to the international expert group responsible for advising the organization on the revision of the historic 1974 recommendation concerning education for international understanding, cooperation, peace, and education relating to human rights and fundamental freedoms.

Professor Boustany has also served as a legal and diplomatic advisor to the Lebanese Minister of Justice, working on laws and bilateral treaties concerning detainees, extraditions, prisons, women’s rights, maritime law, and other legal matters. 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. As an expert designated by the Westminster Foundation, she has trained parliamentary assistants in legal drafting. Professor Boustany specializes in constitutional and administrative law, is the author of a legal work published in France, and has numerous articles published across various legal fields.

She has drafted several laws, bills, and legal studies, including the law on public-private partnerships, the law on maritime zones, more than eight bills regarding the exploitation of maritime zones (ranging from environmental protection to offshore works and the right of innocent passage in Lebanese waters), decrees on economic free zones to stimulate the economy, and studies on the Port of Beirut, electricity in Lebanon, immigration, cluster munitions, and the implementation of UN Resolution 1701. She has also served as an expert in preparing tenders and contracts for the Lebanese state in the energy and renewable energy sector.

Professor Boustany holds a Ph.D. in Law from Panthéon-Assas University Paris II.