The normally voluble government has remained strangely silent about last week’s story carried in this newspaper on the Council of Europe delivering yet another rebuff to Malta when it refused to accept the government’s first submission of three names from which the Maltese judge to sit in the European Court of Justice would be chosen.
The reason for this rebuff was that the government failed to include a woman in the list of three.
But compensating, perhaps, for the government’s silence, one of the women lawyers who did apply but was not chosen, Dr Lorraine Schembri Orland, has spoken out.
Confirming she had indeed applied for the post (see letters, page 10), along with Dr Tania Vella Licari, Malta’s ambassador to Tunisia, Dr Schembri Orland said she possesses qualifications, competence and experience to match those who currently sit on the European Court in Strasbourg. Moreover, she chides the government saying she expected a more ethical approach on the matter and asks why the government is still dragging its feet on the issue.
In a way, the issue seems to highlight the current difference of opinion between Chief Justice de Gaetano and parliamentary secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici on how should judges be appointed. The Chief Justice has said he would prefer a system where people interested in becoming judges would apply and then be vetted by a committee. Dr Mifsud Bonnici said in an interview in The Times on Wednesday that the current manner in which judicial appointments are handled “works” and there is no reason to change it.
Many in the legal profession seem to agree, at least on this matter, with the parliamentary secretary and mentioned the Strasbourg appointment dilemma as a case in point. Imagine, they said, if five lawyers apply to become judges and four are rejected. Would it not be held against them if they were found to be incompetent or inexperienced?
On the other hand, however, at least one of the most recent appointments to the bench, that of Judge Anna Felice, has raised muted complaints. Dr Felice worked in the legal office headed by former president Ugo Mifsud Bonnici some years ago and was later appointed secretary to the Commission for the Administration of Justice.
She then resigned and was appointed to a variety of government posts none of which required a lawyer; in fact, she was not succeeded by lawyers whenever she moved on.
Curiously, Dr Felice was secretary of the Commission at the time, the only time, when the Commission was asked to give its advice on the appointments of judges –David Cuschieri and Andre Camilleri.
Meeting on a Saturday morning at San Anton Palace, the worried commission had prudently asked how many years Dr Camilleri had spent practising as a lawyer – a qualification to become judge.
Dr Camilleri had worked for a short time in the Attorney General’s office, after moving on to a company manufacturing beer and then on to MFSA – none of which posts required a lawyer’s qualification.
While the commission was relatively unanimous in submitting its request for information, it was not prepared for the brusque reply it got from then Prime Minister Eddie Fenech Adami who said in an interview to The Times that he could add up all by himself. Since then, the commission has not been asked to submit its views on any other judicial appointment, not even that of the Chief Justice. Dr Camilleri did not accept the post after all the controversy.
It is still unclear what steps the government will take on this issue, following the Strasbourg rebuff. Maltese appointments to the court have a history of controversy: the previous incumbent, Judge Giovanni Bonello was appointed by the Labour administration and his predecessor, Judge Jo-Jo Mifsud Bonnici used to be called “the minister’s brother” by those intent on disparaging the choice.
Nevertheless, it is also the common opinion of the Court that the three names submitted by the government – Chief Justice de Gaetano, Judge Joseph D Camilleri and Judge Joseph Filletti – who all sit on the Court of Appeal, have wide experience in dealing with human rights cases.
The other woman applicant, Dr Tania Vella Licari, may have had the additional problem that her former husband, Dr Joe Licari, is the man named by KullHadd as the person representing the government of Malta on this matter.
Finally, Dr Mifsud Bonnici’s interview, in which he blamed the judiciary for delays at court has raised the hackles of the judiciary and the legal profession in general. In former times, some told this newspaper, the people now in power used to be very shocked at such words.
But not all delays are due to the judiciary: Magistrate Dennis Montebello, as a case in point, is due to end his tenure in December on reaching retirement age, but new court cases are still being assigned to him, even though it is certain he will not be presiding them.