Human Rights Law – Selected Writings of Kevin Aquilina

The Faculty of Law in our University can be justifiably proud of the jurists that had been taught, and had then lectured to the next generation, therein.

In my youth, I sat at the feet of Professors such as Victor Caruana Galizia, Felice Cremona, Anthony Mamo, John Cremona, Joe Xuereb, Joseph Max Ganado and Edwin Busuttil. A formidable array of jurists who served the country, drafted its Constitution, its laws and advised its governments. These men of law gave the country a lawyer class, which not only furnished the defenders and prosecutors, below the bench, but also administered justice as magistrates and judges.

Many lawyers also performed service in the political field. Indeed, we have had a number of Prime Ministers (Francesco Buhagiar, Sir Ugo Mifsud, George Borg Olivier, Karmenu Mifsud Bonnici, Edward Fenech Adami, Lawrence Gonzi), as well as ministers, and a number of Presidents of the Republic (Sir Anthony Mamo, Anton Buttigieg, myself, Guido de Marco, Edward Fenech Adami, George Abela) who were graduates of this Law Faculty.

The tradition began in former centuries, and again, to my knowledge from the notes my own father distilled from his own professors’ lectures, reached also some levels of excellence. Our Laws owe a great debt of gratitude to the graduates of this Faculty. We were independent in jurisprudence, many decades before we became politically independent.

Perhaps we do not sing the praises of our jurists as much as we should, and the general public is not fully aware of the benefits that this old Faculty (perhaps the second oldest) has bestowed upon the country.

Furthermore, when I took in hand Professor Aquilina’s latest volume, entitled “Human Rights Law – Selected Writings of Kevin Aquilina”, published this year by the Department of Media, Communications and Technology Law of the Faculty of Law, I said to myself: “The spark and charge is still very much with us.” The book is testimonial to Professor Kevin Aquilina’s erudition, dedication and scientific thoroughness. Professor Aquilina is now the Dean of the Faculty, but he has been giving yeoman service to the teaching of law and also advising and drafting legislation for many years.

The book covers a lot of acreage in Human Rights Law. Human Rights Law is the law of all of us, and ideally the book should interest all Maltese citizens. It should be required reading for all lawyers. It should be compulsory reading for all politicians, and most emphatically for all wielders of public power. Reading it would benefit, enrich and refine the sensibility of all civil servants.

The work is perhaps at its best when dealing, in Part VI of the book, with Freedom of Information, Privacy, Data Protection, Broadcasting and the Media, an area of law in which the author has practiced, advised and become a recognised expert. Here again, I would urge all men and women of the written and broadcast media to study, at least, this part of the book as it is really the work of a specialist.

Above all, it is a work of scholarship. Nothing is left out that enters within the compass of Human Rights Law. Even though the book purports to contain “selected writings”, the opus is well organised and indeed comprehensive. The analysis is, as usual with Professor Aquilina, very thorough indeed. The argumentation is invariably sound, with no partisan or any other kind of bias. The book is rich in the historical perspective and imbued with the humanist inspiration. In fact, it proudly shows on its jacket a reproduction of Michelangelo’s depiction of the divine touch reaching for Adam’s index finger. Kevin Aquilina adds a scholar’s authority to the whole subject matter.

The book adds lustre to the illustrious Faculty of Law.