...
When the Lebanese Constitution was promulgated on 23 May 1926, it was still under the French mandate that had been erected after the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I. The constitution was designed after the French constitution of the Third Republic. Institutionally, it provided for a parliament, a Cabinet and President, while retaining the supreme power of the French High Commissioner. With respect to rights it stated the equality of the Lebanese people before the law, protected religious freedoms (Lebanese Constitution, articles 7 and 9), and stated the principle of equal confessional representation in public jobs. It also commissioned the Cabinet as a temporary mechanism for the coexistence and fairness between Muslims and Christians (Lebanese Constitution, article 95 (old version, before amendments of 1943 and 1990), thus embedding the first seeds of confessionalism.
...
