Comments for Malta University Press

Comment on France in the Maltese Collective Memory by Michel Vandepoorter, Ambassador of France to Malta

Michel Vandepoorter, Ambassador of France to Malta — Fri, 12 Nov 2021 20:53:56 +0000

The 1798-1800 events unfortunately appear to have defined France’s image in the Maltese mindset ever since, ignoring other periods of time but also the more positive contributions of these two years. Charles Xuereb’s outstanding book provides thought-provoking inputs and points out the necessity for Maltese people to take greater ownership of their long and rich history in order to better assert their identity.

Comment on Crosscurrents in Postcolonial Memory and Literature by Micheal O'Neill, Durham University

Micheal O'Neill, Durham University — Sun, 06 Jun 2021 03:39:22 +0000

“This is a deeply satisfying and thought-provoking collection in honour of Daniel Massa, a poet, teacher and scholar of great distinction. Essays, poems and recollections coalesce to give a powerful sense of how Massa’s career and writing are simultaneously independent and bound up with the evolving post-colonial identity of Malta. The reader gains continually brilliant insights into concerns relevant to a poet-scholar of integrity and passion who engages with the here and now in the light of long perspectives of many kinds. Anyone interested in Daniel Massa, Malta’s history and culture, the post-colonial and ways of understanding major aspects of our global present will want to read this finely assembled and edited volume.”

Comment on The Maltese Legal System Volume 2, Part B by Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici LL.D., President Emeritus of Malta

Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici LL.D., President Emeritus of Malta — Mon, 29 Mar 2021 06:17:50 +0000

Charting the seas of our Constitutional and Human Rights Law is a valiant endeavour on which Professor David Joseph Attard has now embarked in presenting this second volume of his work describing the Maltese Legal System. In other areas of law the development in Malta has been rather more uniform and even. Our Constitutional Law is the end result of a succession of political events and upheavals, especially before the attainment of Independence fifty years ago, but which did not stop at that point. Our accession to the European Union has produced a further realignment whilst the system was still being weaned away from total dependence on British Public Law. This rich and complex second Volume is by no means a simple exposition of the state of Maltese Constitutional and Human Rights Law as surmised by the author; it is also a compendium of the sources and in addition an updating of the disagreements and disputations between the scholars in this field.

Comment on The Maltese Legal System Volume 2, Part A by Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici LL.D., President Emeritus of Malta

Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici LL.D., President Emeritus of Malta — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 23:17:07 +0000

Comment on The Maltese Legal System Volume 1 by Giovanni Bonello, Judge Emeritus of the European Court of Human Rights

Giovanni Bonello, Judge Emeritus of the European Court of Human Rights — Sun, 06 Sep 2020 18:11:38 +0000

The Maltese legal system has never, so far, had the benefit of becoming the object of reflection and study in a comprehensive, encyclopaedic, let alone interdisciplinary manner. This, in my view, evidenced a grim lacuna, with the evident victims of this deficiency being the inquisitive public, the legal professions themselves and students of the law. With what was hitherto available, no one could approach the many disciplines of law through an organic, over-arching introduction. In Malta, in so far as the culture of law was concerned, you were either inside the professional enclave or thoroughly out. There was no half-way house, no reception area, no graduality in one’s exposure to the challenges of the awesome architectures of the law. Plenty of detail, but no overall panoramic take.

Judge Professor David Attard has now come to the rescue, and quite daringly, I would say. I have had the advantage and the pleasure of viewing the manuscript of his work “The Maltese Legal System Volume I”, the very first book deliberately engineered to bridge the gaping chasm that separated the initiated from those out of the cold.

This work, meaningful and professional, takes non-lawyers gently by the hand, opens doors and guides readers through the mazes and mysteries of the main theoretical fundamentals of the law as well as through its practical legal structures.

So far, we have somehow done without it. After its publication we may well ask how that was at all possible.