In light of the recent publication ‘The Blue Sisters Saga’ by Tonio Borg whose blurb reads, “This book is indeed another proof, if there was ever a need, of (Giovanni) Bonello’s grit, courage, knowledge, and passionate vocation,”  I first wished to ask, if the legal wranglings surrounding the ‘Blue Sisters’ case helped ‘form’ you into the person you are today? Or, put in another way, if you closed the case and left with lessons that remained with you to this day?

The Blue Sisters human rights case was only one out of 170 court cases in which I defended victims of human rights abuses. It dealt with important issues, but all human rights cases deal with important issues. Violations had by then become so routine that the majority had developed a sort of immunity to government excesses against vulnerable individuals. Yes, that saga taught me several lessons, but neither more nor less than most other leading cases did.

Out of the glowing praise, I was particularly struck by the virtues of “grit” and “vocation” which you keep on demonstrating to this day, most particularly with regards to your thirst for academia. Could you tell me your, perhaps differing, motivation/s and sheer drive for legal work, historical research, etc.?

My human rights work was driven by masochism, the passive acceptance of punishment – because I had been bred to believe that fighting perceived evil was an imperative. I wouldn’t be able to face myself if I hid and ran. My ‘academia’ work, on the other hand, is driven by an entirely opposite motivation – gratification. I do it because I enjoy it.

After the publication of ‘Malta At The European Court Of Human Rights 1987 – 2012’ have there since been cases that fascinated you and warranted case summaries and further analysis?

Human rights law fascinates me because it is relatively new and unstoppably evolving. Compared to civil law, whose basic tenets crystallised many hundreds of years ago, the human rights lawyer cannot escape the awareness he or she is participating in a wonderful creative process for the strengthening of human dignity and for the empowering of those the structures of authority routinely disempower. Every human rights lawsuit won, is a victory for human values.

In a similar vein, throughout your legal career was there a particular instance or case that ‘stuck’ with you to this day?

As I mentioned, I fathered 170 human rights children. I would hate to single out one and not another. Though very different, they are all equally dear to me.

Apart from a vast body of legal knowledge gathered over years of experience, BDL Books reported that you were the Chair of Drug Offenders Rehabilitation Board. With the ongoing parliamentary reforms on the laws of the Drug Court, I wish to ask if you have any comment on the matter.

In my view, the laws which encouraged rehabilitation of drug offenders rather than focussing on punishment were excellent steps in the right direction. It is not always easy to strike the right balance between rehabilitation of perceived delinquents and the rights of the community to be protected from criminality. But that law, overall, strove to achieve that aim, often successfully. I am proud to have been asked to be part of that process.

Additionally, following your time on the Board and seeing people who struggled with substances face-to-face, I wish to ask for your comment following the legalization of cannabis.

There are as many valid arguments in favour of legalisation as there are against. Personally, I find that once the state, in its sovereign discretion, legalises the personal use of cannabis with restrictions and limitations, the eternal Maltese problem of enforcing those restrictions arises. On principle, the restrictions look sensible on paper. In practice, legalising the drug without any effective enforcement of its restrictions has apparently resulted in a joyful free-for-all.

Waxing, perhaps, philosophical, following your publication ‘Falling in Eden’ and as well as a constant presence in the legal field, have you made progress in the question “Why do people err?”

No. The human condition generally seems to be imperfectly engineered. Call it original sin, call it inherent fallibility, I am more shocked when I encounter perfection than amazed when I encounter its absence. 

Going onto the second volume, would you deem ‘Blaming it on Eve’ to be a feminist study? In light of its attempt to place the woman as an “equal player of history” within an infamously patriarchal Maltese society.

As a pioneer and decrepit human rights jurist, I don’t have to advertise feminist credentials. My very recent book, ‘Blaming it on Eve’ though not programmed as a feminist paean, has feminism as its pervasive sub-text. It is all about forgotten women as leading players, in Malta’s journey through history, in virtue and, alternatively, in evil.

With the recent publication of the ‘Breaking the Silence’, which saw your contribution, and keeping in mind ‘Blaming it on Eve’, would you say that you use your academia to give a voice to the less-privileged in Maltese society?

My long chapter in that book was the very first researched study on the extent of homophobia throughout the history of Malta. Knowing a problem, and forcing it to the surface, is usually a first, and indispensable, step in the healing process. So yes, allow me to claim that I had in mind the plight of the less-privileged in a bigoted Maltese society.

You have written extensively on Malta, and with the important milestone anniversaries of Independence Day and Republic Day in 2024, the question of Maltese identity inevitably crops-up, once again. As an academic who has studied many facets of Maltese history and culture, what do you believe gives Malta a stand-alone identity?

For me, patriotism has nothing to do with jingoism or delusions of superiority. It is just a matter of profiling a national identity and deriving a sense of purpose and strength from its traditional values. I identify Malteseness with the islands’ unique language, with what good the inhabitants have salvaged from their traditional Christian imprint and with all the plusses and minuses of insularity.