Chibli Mallat was born in Lebanon in 1960 into a family of Lebanese civil servants to whom culture, opposition to oppression and injustice, and non-sectarianism were deeply held traditions.

His great-uncle Tamer was a poet and a celebrated judge who famously stood up to the Ottoman corrupt ruler of Mount Lebanon in 1892. His grandfather Chibli, a journalist whose press was burnt by the French in 1908, worked as a civil servant in various positions, and was famous in the Arab world as 'Poet of the Cedars'.

His father Wajdi served as Minister and President of the Lebanese Bar Association, and was elected to the first presidency of the Constitutional Court in 1993, resigning in 1997 in protest over the review process of the Lebanese parliamentary elections. Wajdi recently published a book entitled Mawaqef/Positions .

Born Maronite Christian and recognized as a leading Islamic scholar, Mallat is able to speak without prejudice to all Lebanese. He has maintained and broadened special relations with representatives of groups across the wide religious and political spectrum in Lebanon - with Maronite Patriarch Nasrallah Sfeir, Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, the family of Shi'i Imam Musa Sadr, the late Rafic Hariri and his close aides, and leading political, cultural and economic figures in Lebanon .

As professor of law at St Joseph 's University and a practicing lawyer, Mallat has an informed view of the obstacles to the rule of law in the country.

Over a period of two decades, Mallat has had consistent record of intervention and reflection on issues of human rights, crimes against humanity, the democratic process, and the rule of law, in Lebanon and in the region, engaging the international judicial, political, and media arena to effect creative and pragmatic solutions.