Justice should carry no price tag, but anyone who has received an invoice from their lawyer knows that justice is not cheap. In early March the Special Tribunal for Lebanon (STL) came into effect, pursuant to the request of the Lebanese government and United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions 1644 and 1757. On the surface, the explosion that ripped through the heart of Beirut on February 14, 2005, may not seem worthy of a tribunal with an “international character” or the invocation of chapter seven of the UN charter. Indeed, such events are not uncommon around the Middle East and they have become almost synonymous with the regional political scene. Yet it was this event the lead to the death of the Western backed, two-time Lebanese Prime Minister and business mogul Rafiq Hariri. The politics of paying The tribunal is the legal successor to the United Nations International Independent Investigation
