Beirut Bar Admission Test common mistakes
Beirut Bar Admission Test · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Citing the Lebanese Code of Obligations and Contracts (COC) by bare article number for a proposition that actually depends on a special statute (e.g., the landlord-tenant law, the insurance chapter, or consumer-protection rules), so the correction is easy to attack on the ground that the general rule has been displaced.
Candidates memorize COC articles in isolation during revision and then treat every contractual problem as a general-contract problem. Lebanese practice layers special regimes over the COC (rental law, insurance, labour, consumer protection), and the special text prevails. Under exam pressure the familiar article number surfaces first.
What to do instead
Before writing any article number, classify the problem: is it a general obligation/contract issue, or does a special statute govern? Build a one-page 'lex specialis map' per topic (lease, employment, insurance, consumer, carriage) listing which statute displaces the COC and which COC articles survive as residual rules. In the answer, state the hierarchy explicitly: 'the special rule applies; the COC article governs only subsidiarily.'
Treating the crime's material element as satisfied by the accused's mere presence or association, without identifying the specific act of execution (acte de commencement d'exécution for attempt, or the precise conduct for the completed offence), and without separately addressing the moral element (intent, or negligence where the offence is negligent).
Fact patterns are written densely and candidates rush to name the offence. The Lebanese Penal Code distinguishes attempt from mere preparation, and many offences require a specific intent or a particular result. Candidates conflate 'he was there' with 'he did the act', and skip the subjective element entirely.
What to do instead
Use a fixed two-column checklist for every offence: (1) legal element - quote the offence definition; (2) material element - name the exact act and, for attempt, explain why it is a commencement of execution rather than preparation; (3) moral element - state intent or negligence and point to the fact proving it; (4) defences (justification, excuse, mistake). Write the four headings even when the answer is short.
Confusing the roles of the juge d'instruction, the procureur général, and the trial court, and asserting that a procedural nullity can be raised at any stage or that appeal deadlines run from the judgment's reasoning rather than its notification.
Criminal procedure is learned as a narrative of stages, so candidates blur who does what and when. Nullities in Lebanese criminal procedure are time-barred if not raised before the specified stage, and appeal periods run from notification/service, not from the date the party learned of the decision. Candidates also mix civil and criminal appeal timelines.
What to do instead
Draw a one-page procedural timeline with three lanes (investigation, instruction, trial) and, under each, the competent authority, the act performed, and the deadline to challenge it. Memorize the nullity rule as 'raise it at the first opportunity or lose it'. For every deadline question, write the trigger event (notification, service, pronouncement) before computing the date.
Answering a civil procedure question on jurisdiction or admissibility by citing substantive law, or by asserting that the Lebanese courts have jurisdiction without checking the arbitration clause, the foreign-jurisdiction clause, or the special rules on international jurisdiction.
Candidates revise procedure late and lightly, treating it as mechanical. Jurisdiction (compétence) and admissibility (recevabilité) are procedural questions governed by the Code of Civil Procedure, and a contractual arbitration or choice-of-court clause can remove the dispute from the ordinary courts. Mixing the two produces an answer that is legally wrong even if elegantly written.
What to do instead
Adopt the sequence: (1) is there an arbitration or jurisdiction clause? (2) if yes, is it valid and does it cover the dispute? (3) if no, which court has territorial and subject-matter jurisdiction? (4) is the claim admissible (standing, interest, time limits)? Answer in that order and label each step. Keep a separate revision sheet for the Code of Civil Procedure, never merged with the COC.
Analysing a company-law problem by applying the general partnership (société de personnes) logic to a joint-stock company (société anonyme), or vice versa - for example, asserting that a shareholder of an SA is personally liable for company debts, or that unanimous consent is required for an ordinary SA decision.
Candidates learn one company form well and generalize. Lebanese company law (Code of Commerce and the 2019 reforms) gives each form distinct rules on liability, governance, capital, and decision thresholds. The most common error is importing unlimited liability into a limited-liability structure, or importing unanimity where a majority suffices.
What to do instead
For every company question, first write the form (SARL, SA, partnership, sole proprietorship) and the applicable statute, then a three-line grid: liability of owners, decision thresholds (ordinary/extraordinary), and capital rules. Never answer a company question without naming the form. Practise re-labelling the same facts under two different forms to see how the answer changes.
In an insolvency question, conflating the opening of proceedings with the establishment of the debt, and asserting that a creditor can enforce a claim individually after the judgment declaring insolvency, or that secured creditors are automatically paid outside the collective process.
Candidates memorize the vocabulary of insolvency without the sequence. The collective nature of the proceedings (suspension of individual enforcement, verification of claims, ranking of creditors) is the core concept, and it is precisely what examiners test. The confusion usually comes from mixing the pre-insolvency and post-insolvency positions of creditors.
What to do instead
Learn the insolvency timeline as a numbered sequence: cessation of payments, opening judgment, suspension of individual actions, declaration and verification of claims, ranking, liquidation or restructuring. For each step, note who acts and what is frozen. When a question mentions a secured creditor, state the ranking rule and whether the security survives the collective process before discussing payment.
Answering a labour-law question by applying the general contract rules on termination and damages, ignoring the mandatory protective rules (notice, indemnity for arbitrary dismissal, end-of-service indemnity, working time, and the special rules for protected categories), and treating a settlement release as valid without checking its compliance with labour law.
Labour law is a body of mandatory rules that override freedom of contract. Candidates who revise it as a branch of the COC miss that the employee cannot validly waive statutory protections, and that the Labour Code and social-security rules set minimum standards. Settlement releases are a classic trap.
What to do instead
Keep a checklist of mandatory entitlements: notice period, indemnity for arbitrary dismissal, end-of-service indemnity, accrued leave, and social-security registration. For any waiver or settlement, test validity against the mandatory minimum. State explicitly that the parties cannot contract out of the protective rules, and compute each entitlement separately rather than lumping them into one figure.
On a constitutional or administrative question, reviewing the legality of an administrative act without first identifying the competent court and the time limit for the recours, or confusing the annulment action (excès de pouvoir) with a full-jurisdiction claim for damages or with the administrative contract dispute.
Candidates focus on the substantive grounds (incompetence, form, misuse of power, violation of law) and forget that the action itself is time-barred and court-specific. Lebanese administrative litigation distinguishes annulment, full jurisdiction, and interpretation actions, and the deadline for the annulment action is short. A correct analysis filed in the wrong type of action fails.
What to do instead
Open every administrative answer with: type of act (unilateral/contractual), competent court (Conseil d'État or administrative court), type of action (annulment, full jurisdiction, interpretation), and time limit. Then list the four grounds of illegality in order. Only after that discuss merits and damages. Keep a table of act types against available actions.
In family and personal-status questions, applying a single civil rule to a dispute between parties of different religious communities, without identifying which personal-status law governs (community law, the law of the rite, or the civil rules on mixed marriages), and without addressing the conflict-of-laws rule.
Lebanon's personal-status system is confessional and plural. Candidates revise one community's rules and then apply them universally, or ignore the question of which law applies when the parties belong to different communities or one is foreign. The choice-of-law step is often skipped entirely.
What to do instead
Begin every family-law answer by identifying the parties' communities and the applicable personal-status law, then the conflict rule if communities differ. Only after that state the substantive rule. Build a comparison sheet for the main points (marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance) across the principal communities, and a separate note on the civil rules for mixed or foreign-element cases.
Drafting a legal document or delivering an oral submission as a narrative of facts with a conclusion at the end, without a stated claim (demande), without numbered legal grounds, and without a clear prayer for relief (dispositif), so the examiner cannot identify what is being asked or on what legal basis.
Candidates write as they would answer an academic question - facts first, analysis second, conclusion last. Legal writing and advocacy require the opposite structure: the claim and its grounds up front, facts only as they support the grounds, and a precise, enforceable prayer for relief. Under time pressure the academic habit dominates.
What to do instead
Use a fixed skeleton for every written exercise: (1) parties and claim; (2) competent court and procedure; (3) numbered legal grounds, each with its article; (4) facts tied to each ground; (5) prayer for relief with exact amounts and orders sought; (6) list of exhibits. For oral advocacy, prepare a 30-second opening stating the claim and the two strongest grounds, and practise delivering it before any facts.