Judicial appointments: ‘Worst constitutional mess since Independence’

Malta is in the “worst constitutional mess” that it has faced since Independence, the Dean of the University of Malta’s Faculty of Laws, Kevin Aquilina, has told The Sunday Times of Malta in reaction to last Thursday’s judicial appointments and the lawsuit that challenged the selection system. It is a sentiment echoed by other legal experts, who also raised the spectre of the appointees’ judgments being tested in the future on human rights grounds. Thursday’s rushed judicial appointments fly in the face of a report by the Council of Europe’s Venice Commission that says the mechanism of appointments “falls short of ensuring judicial independence”.  Civil society organisation Repubblika latched onto the report by the world’s most eminent constitutional body to mount the unprecedented challenge in the constitutional court. In a day of legal drama, the urgent lawsuit reached the constitutional court at 12.30pm on Thursday, which led to Mr Justice Mark Chetcuti giving the Prime Minister 24 hours to reply and appointing an urgent hearing for Monday morning. Ninety minutes later another urgent application requested a stay of the appointments but this was rejected by the judge on the...