Lawyer and former MP Franco Debono is no longer the sole law commissioner: he now heads a five-member commission which includes three former members of the Justice Reform Commission headed by Judge Giovanni Bonello.

Dr Bonello is the only member of the Commission for the Holistic Reform of the Justice System – whose work was concluded with the publication of its final report – not to join Dr Debono’s own commission.

The other three members – retired judge Philip Sciberras, dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta Kevin Aquilina and lawyer Ramona Frendo – have been appointed law commissioners along with law professor Ray Mangion. Dr Debono, who was previously the sole law commissioner, was appointed president of the Law Commission.

In an interview with The Malta Independent, Dr Debono confirmed that the five-member commission has already held a number of meetings.

Curiously, the transformation of the Law Commission from a one-man operation to a five-member body was not followed by an announcement from the Department of Information, as is typically the case, and as was the case when Dr Debono was appointed commissioner.

The decision, which was officially made on 11 July but was backdated to 28 May, was only announced on the 15 July edition of the Government Gazette. The commissioners’ term ends on 31 May 2015, although it may presumably be renewed at that point.

Maltese law does not set any limit on the number of law commissioners that may serve at any one time. The Statute Law Revision Act states that the minister responsible for justice “may appoint a Commissioner, or a body of Commissioners consisting of such number of Commissioners as may for the time being be in office, to be known in either case as the Law Commission”.

Updating Maltese laws

There has been little indication, at best, of what the Law Commission has been doing over the past year, but Dr Debono stressed that it has a sizeable task in hand.

As the Statute Law Revision Act explains, the main aim of the Law Commission is to prepare a revised edition of the statute laws of Malta: a revision which can only take place, at most, once every 10 years.

In practice, however, revisions have taken much longer; the last revised edition dates back to 1984, when the late Edgar Mizzi was law commissioner. The previous revision dates back to the 1940s.

“We have a body of laws that reflected a developing society, the Maltese society of 1984. We now need laws that reflect the European reality we are living in,” Dr Debono maintains.

The exercise includes the harmonisation of laws, the consolidation of existing disparate legislation into more coherent chapters, the removal of laws that have been rendered obsolete, and even ensuring that laws that are still awaiting the publication of a legal notice to come into force takes place.

Dr Debono also explained that from time to time, the commission recommends possible corrections to laws – it is not empowered to change laws itself – and that he was also involved in drawing up the proposed party financing laws: beyond, he emphasised, the proposed legislation he had presented as an MP.

Asked whether the new Law Commission represented a continuity of the Bonello commission’s work, Dr Debono argued that this was partly the case due to his own efforts in Parliament.

He insisted that a private member’s bill on reforms in justice and home affairs, as well as the work of the Recodification and Consolidation of Laws Committee which he chaired, formed the basis of that commission’s report.

Dr Debono maintained that he was very pleased with the Bonello commission’s work, stating that the proposed reforms would be greatly beneficial and that they confirmed what he had been saying years ago.

He is also satisfied with the implementation of the proposals so far.

Asked to comment on arguably the government’s most controversial action in the justice sector – the appointment of former MP Wenzu Mintoff as a judge – he insisted that he did not wish to comment on individual appointments, although he also observed that he had no doubt that the new judge would carry out his duties with integrity and to the best of his abilities.

Going back to the implementation of reforms, Dr Debono said that, regrettably, past reforms were being done in piecemeal fashion.

“These are very sensitive reforms that should have been carried out years ago. If someone paid attention, we could have been implementing these reforms instead of wasting our time,” he added, once more referring to his political career.

“Thankfully, they are being implemented now.”

A post-colonial Constitution

Dr Debono was also appointed coordinator of the upcoming Constitutional Convention: another appointment on which little has been heard so far.

Asked to state what progress has been registered so far, he said that he has long finished work on the terms of reference and the composition of the convention, which is set to lead to a rewrite of the Maltese Constitution. At this point, he added, he is waiting for the government’s go-ahead to proceed further.

He maintained that his call for a new constitution – or for an extensive revision of the existing one – was one of the most important declarations that he made as an MP, before stressing that the Maltese Constitution was a legacy of colonialism, and not an autochthonous constitution such as the American one.

“The time has come for a Constitution by and for the people, which is testament to our sovereignty and of how far we have moved away from a colonial mentality,” he insisted.

Dr Debono argued that many constitutional reforms were needed, including a reform of the appointment of the judiciary and electoral reforms.