Wednesday, December 19, 2007

law in malta

No, unlike the dog bite and medicine, I am not writing because of a recent encounter with the law.

Rather, I went to the Christmas party of the Laws faculty and got a ride back to university with the associate dean, who does constitutional law here.  I now have the very basic outline of things. Malta has mixed code/common law system.  In Civil Law, it is based on code law.  But in other areas of law and in Constitutional matters, it has elements of the Common Law.  Apparently there is judicial review by the courts, and lawyers will cite other cases.  But, equally, the lower courts are not bound by their precedents.  I may have this somewhat wrong, but that seemed to be the gist of things.  

The Malta Constitutional Court is not as powerful as the US Supreme Court, but it does adjudicate issues of human rights and of the constitutionality of actions and rules (hence judicial review).  If I learn more, I'll write it up.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi
I dont know if you can help me ....ive tried to contact all sorts of people in Malta but with no answers!
My mum has died and it was her wishes that i scatter her ashes in The Grand Harbour in Malta....Do i need permission from anyone with regards the Malta Law?
Thanks.
Susan Sykes.

Mary said...

I'll ask.