Da Tadic a Ayyash. Le conseguenze dell'insindacabilità della decisione del Consiglio di Sicurezza di istituire il Tribunale Speciale per il Libano

In the Ayyash Decisions, the STL declined to review the lawfulness of its establishment by UNSC Resolution 1757 (2007). This essay aims to identify the consequences of that ruling in regard to the STL’s legal nature and its relationship with the UN. The abandonment of the trend to judicially assess the validity of UNSC Chapter VII Resolutions – begun by the ICTY with the Tadić case, and recently followed by the STL itself in El-Sayed and by other courts outside of the UN system – seems to limit the independence of the STL and to absorb it within the UN institutional framework. In the light of the Ayyash Decisions, it becomes even harder to see the STL as a mixed or as a national court. Contrary to its legal reasoning, some of its features may lead us to consider it a UNSC subsidiary organ or, at least, as a body under the Council’s authority. However, one may question that categorization when turning to the problem concerning the legal status of the STL’s judicial activity.