Addressing the President of the Republic at a ceremony to exchange New Year greetings, Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri complained about a recent change in the order of precedence that pushed the judiciary further down.

Chief Justice Camilleri told the President: Thank God we are once again meeting in order to exchange greetings for the new year. In the  name of the Judiciary, many of whom are accompanying me today, as well as in my own name, we wish you a new year full of fruitful works in the interest of Malta and the Maltese. We also wish you and your husband, as well as all your family, a year full to the brim with good health, blessings and peace, which are much more valuable than prosperity, wealth and good fortune which we are acccustomed to wish each other during this period.

The craving for swift prosperity and for unlimited wealth is too often becoming a source of distortion of the Rule of Law and of the Rule of Social Justice which should reign among us. This craving becomes a source of grave distortion of the Rule of Law when the result is theft, fraud or corruption which go unpunished; it becomes a source of distortion of the Rule of Social Justice when the result is the enrichment of the few while the many are impoverished or abandoned to their poverty.

I therefore would like to grasp this opportunity to congratulate you on the enormous success which once again the L-Istrina campaign has had this year when in a short time it managed to attract more than five million euro in contributions and, I understand, donations are still coming. This is a clear example of how wealth and prosperity can serve as a means to demonstrate solidarity and compassion towards the vulnerable and those in need. This is certainly to the merit of the great generosity of the Maltese but is also to the merit of the trust which your figure of President inspires in the Maltese and motivates them to contribute in large numbers.

It is a great pity that in other parts of the world these days of festivities have been polluted and terribly shaken by terrorist acts which  have left a large number of families in mourning and robbed them of the happiness and peace which this period should  bring with it. It is right that we should keep them also in mind.

We cannot look forward without looking back.

In the past year the Judiciary has improved considerably its performance when it comes to the length of proceedings and the number of judgments delivered. Of course, there still remains much to be done,  because the problem had festered for tens of years and now time is required to resolve it. However, progress is being registered, so  much so that this year, as in the previous year, the courts decided a greater number of cases than the number of new cases introduced with the result that the number of pending cases has decreased.

The reality remains, however, that the slightest change of circumstances, such as the retirement of a member of the judiciary, or when a judge or magistrate becomes infirm for a long time, or other similar circumstances, could reverse the progress registered. We, therefore, cannot afford to be complacent in the face of improved performance.

Once I have referred to illness among the Judiciary, my thoughts turn immediatley to Magistrate Saviour Demicoli who in recent times has been admitted to hospital  in a serious condition and who, not withstanding his unhappy health situation, had continued to attend to his duties in Court.

 

Unfortunately, the end of the year left a bitter taste in the Judiciary because of the treatment it received when the Government all of a sudden changed the Order of Precedence and the Judiciary, as represented by my office, was relegated to a position inferior to that which it has always been acknowledged to merit along the years.

This took place without the courtesy of the slightest advance notice and without any sort of consultation with the Judiciary, so much so that I first became aware of the change when I came to take my position in front of the War Monument on Remembrance Day. In my view this is not appropriate, even if courtesy and correctness in the ways things are done might no longer be fashionable in modern times.

 

What perhaps is worse is the fact that after a cordial  meeting which I had with the Principal Permanent Secretary at his request,  and in which I expressed my disappointment at how things were done and  explained to him that the change which had been made was ill-advised, after more than one month I am still without a reply. I am not sure whether I can hope that perhaps courtesy will prevail for the start of the new year.

 

I once again renew to you, and through you to all the people of Malta, and to your husband and all your family, my colleagues' and my own, good wishes for good health, blessings, and peace in the coming new year.