Rayanne Assaf was born in Lebanon and completed her higher studies in Paris. She holds a PHD in International Law and Arbitration from Panthéon Assas Paris II (with high distinction). She is an attorney at Law in Beirut and member of the Higher Arbitration Council of the International Arbitration Center of the Beirut Bar Association; her key competence skills are Litigation and Arbitration and she sat as arbitrator in several international and domestic arbitration cases which includes commercial, construction, financial, and investor state disputes. Dr. Assaf led the Legal Department at the Presidency of the Lebanese Republic (2008-2014), and acquired in this context extensive experience in studying, preparing and drafting projects in various fields relating to political, legal, and administrative reforms in Lebanon. She dealt with all the legal issues submitted to the approval of the President of the Republic, including the study of all the decrees and laws. Among those, she held and followed up several files within the scope of the President’s prerogatives and mandate program (Electoral Law, Decentralization, Delimitation of the maritime borders of the EEZ, the grant of the right to vote to the Lebanese emigrants…). She managed and steered the file related to the amendments of the Lebanese Constitution (Proposing to the President of the Republic, a set of draft amendments to the Constitution clarifying some ambiguous texts in respect of the Taëf agreement which should pave the way for a better functioning of institutions and governance. These clarifications addressed for the first time officially the shortcomings deriving from the ambiguity of some of the constitution’s articles especially those related to the respective prerogatives of these institutions and their cooperation). She was a member of the official Lebanese Special Committee on administrative decentralization (Committee tasked with the preparation for a draft Law for the implementation of the Administrative decentralization, formed by the decision issued by the Lebanese Prime Minister on 7/11/2012, carrying the number 166/2012). She was also a member of the Lebanese official delegation, in charge of negotiating with Cyprus Authorities a maritime agreement on the delimitation of the Exclusive Economic Zone (November 2011), and a member of the Lebanese delegation to the UN General Assembly (2009 and 2011) and several other official presidential visits. She is a member of the Legal committee at the Maronite Center for Documentation and Research under the auspices of the Maronite Patriarchate (Bkerke, Lebanon). Rayanne Assaf contributed as a main speaker to many sessions and conferences on the future of Lebanon and its constitutional regime, and the renewing of the Lebanese system in light of its role and mission in the region. She participated as a member of the Lebanese official delegation to the International Seminar on the delimitation of the Lebanese maritime Boundaries and the exploitation of natural resources in Geneva – Switzerland (2011) and to the London International Boundary Conference organized by the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office, King’s College and Volterra Fietta (2013). She directed and participated to several workshops and seminars on Arbitration. She has many publications, articles and reports in the areas of the Lebanese political system and the prospects for the amendment of its constitutional regime, Lebanon’s electoral law, the project of administrative decentralization, and the delimitation of Lebanon’s maritime borders, among others. Her publications and articles also include the area of international and domestic arbitration.