Understanding Lebanese Politics through its Constitutional Court Contemporary political studies of Lebanon tend to overlook formal state institutions under the assumption Lebanon constitutes a “weak state”. It is true that institutional logics do not say much of Lebanese politics. Yet, institutions are also coveted and contended by political elites from all trends. Therefore, despite their lack of autonomy, institutions appear as privileged spaces to observe how the constitutive logics of power in Lebanon concretely unfold. This paper will delve into this by analysing the activities of the Constitutional Council, Lebanon’s constitutional court. It will be done through an analysis of its relationships with political elites through judges nomination and procedures for referral of cases but also of its decisions within their socio-political context. The paper will also be strengthened by interviews with both political elites and Constitutional Council’s member. These sources reveal how the institution is absorbed by the consensual, sectarian and clientelistic logics shaping Lebanon’s political system. Within it, the Council does not exert a gravitational pull, in the sense that it does not impact the outcome of major political and constitutional controversies, as it eclipses when summoned to do so. This weak "agency" in political decision-making should not however overshadow that the Council probably exerts a more diffuse and objective force on the reproduction of Lebanon’s political system. By its simple existence, its formal powers and its ordinary functioning, the Constitutional Council testifies to the existence of the Lebanese Constitution and participates in the production of a discourse attesting of its implementation. In this, the Council contributes to the enterprise of legal-rational legitimization of the Lebanese state from which political elites articulate their power. This activity is performed by skilful judges who are concerned to some extent with the legal quality and consistency of their decisions. This will lead in conclusion to question the notion of rule of law and the conditions upon which it can be used to understand and analyse countries whose political system do not fit occidental democratic conceptions.