New system working well but still needs improvement - outgoing Chamber of Advocates president

The Chamber of Advocates is pleased with the work of the new Judicial Appointments Commission, although outgoing president George Hyzler admitted that there was still room for improvement in certain elements of it.

Speaking at the Annual Company Law Conference 2018 which is organised by the Department of Commercial Law within the University of Malta and the Malta Law Academy, Hyzler said that the Chamber had been working very hard to encourage and push the government to relinquish its responsibility over the appointment of judges.

The amendments made to the Constitution to render possible this Judicial Appointments Commission was an “important development” which, Hyzler said, had been working “quite well” thus far. The commission’s responsibility is to discuss and scrutinise judicial nominations, then make recommendations to government. Should a commission recommendation be rejected by government, and government proceeds to nominate someone else, government would need to publicly explain their reasons for this decision.

This commission is comprised of the Attorney General, the Chief Justice, the President of the Chamber of Advocates, the Ombudsman and the Auditor General. The appointment of the Chief Justice meanwhile remains down to the government of the day.

Both the government and the opposition agreed on the passing of this bill unanimously back in July 2016.

At the same time as the creation of this commission, amendments relating to the handling of disciplinary measures for those in the legal profession were made. Prior to the changes, professionals in breach of certain measures would either only be verbally told off, or brought before Parliament in an attempt to remove them from their post.

Through the bill approved in 2016 however, they could be suspended, or fined.

Judges are scrutinised, in this regard, by other members of the judiciary, another measure written to further safeguard their independence.

A Committee is now set up whenever a member of the judiciary needs to be disciplined, comprised of three members of the judiciary.

The committee will be able to issue fines and in more serious cases, recommend suspension. When announcing this, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici had indicated that the Judiciary themselves proposed some amendments present in the bill, thanking them for their input.

Hyzler meanwhile, who is soon going to be officially starting in his new role as Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, also made reference to the need for a Lawyer’s Act, as it is unheard of that the legal profession be as unregulated as it is now.

He said that anybody who cared about the integrity and perception of the legal profession should support the drawing up of such an Act, and he said that there is “more or less” an agreement with the government on the Act. He said that given this, he finally felt comfortable in leaving his job with the Chamber.

The conference was also addressed by Chief Justice Joseph Azzopardi, who emphasised that it was important for those within the legal profession to keep abreast with the latest developments taking place in case laws.

Other speakers included Judge Joseph Zammit McKeon, who was the keynote speaker for the conference, Manfred Galdes, Christopher Buttigieg, and Reuben Balzan.