Chamber launches new image, introduces new obligations for members

“A well-regulated profession is in our interest and in the interest of the community at large. The Chamber of Advocates has been campaigning for over ten years for the introduction of the Lawyers’ Act, the law to regulate the legal profession. Notwithstanding this, the Chamber has taken the bold decision to go ahead unilaterally with the introduction of the obligations that are found in the bill of the Lawyers’ Act independently of the Act itself.”

This was announced by Dr George Hyzler, President of the Chamber of Advocates in his introduction to the latest edition of the Chamber’s official publication Law & Practice.

140 years have passed since the adoption of the first statute of the Camera degli Avvocati, now known as the Kamra tal-Avukati or Chamber of Advocates.

“Reflecting upon this important milestone, the Chamber feels that we are nowhere near close enough to allow proper regulation of the profession, at least in line with its European counterparts. A couple of years ago a bill was agreed upon by all interested parties but this has been silently gathering dust on Government’s lap. Therefore, until government wakes up to its responsibility we shall own up to our responsibility to ensure that the profession can develop and regulate itself in the same way and at the same professional levels as our European counterparts. Therefore, the obligations that would have been introduced in the Lawyers’ Act will now be introduced as conditions of membership of the Chamber. Indeed, membership of the Chamber would become a badge of high standard in the profession,” said Dr Hyzler.

Dr Hyzler describes as ironic the fact that pressure to introduce this law is being made by representatives of the profession rather than by government “that seems to be immune to the importance that the legal profession be properly regulated” and expressed his disappointment that there are practitioners who would rather be not subject to “incommodious regulation”.

Edited by Dr Leonard Caruana, this latest edition of Law & Practice was also a platform to officially announce the newly adopted brand identity of the Chamber as well as to announce a very intensive calendar of seminars and conferences for 2018, organised by the Malta Law Academy, a foundation of the Chamber of Advocates.

Besides a roundup of the Chamber’s most recent events and initiatives, Law & Practice also contains a number of very interesting articles and papers by a number of legal contributors such as Dr Albert Ganado who wrote about the legal remedy of restitution in integrum, Dr Anton Micallef who contributed an interesting review of the Trust Law, Dr Natalino Caruana de Brincat posed the question as to whether the Employment Law has been constructively dismissed whereas Professor Kenneth S Klein wrote about Comparative Jury Procedures highlighting what a small nation like Malta can teach the United States about Jury Reform. Dr David Fabri also submitted a discussion paper on the topic Current Issues and Challenges in Local Professional Ethics.

The front cover of this latest edition features the newly restored painting of Judge Vincenzo Bonavita (1752-1829) who came from a distinguished line of judges, lawyers and notaries. Judge Bonavita had the distinction of serving as judge under the Order of St John, the French and then the British. This painting, part of the collection of historical artefacts housed at the Chamber of Advocates, was excellently restored by PrevArti thanks to a generous donation by Roger and Martin Vella Bonavita, two direct descendants of Judge Bonavita who learnt about the painting’s existence last year and came forward with their offer to sponsor its restoration.