Consolidation of laws is ‘ongoing project’ but no annual reports from commission

The consolidation of legislation by the Law Commission is an “ongoing project” according to Law Commissioner Antonio Mizzi, rather than an annual exercise of legal repeals and updates.

The commission was created at law in 1980, with Edgar Mizzi and Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici serving as the first law commissioners before the appointment in 2013 of former PN MP Franco Debono. Former judge Antonio Mizzi succeeded Debono in 2019.

Yet no consolidation had taken place since 1984 before an initiative in 2014 organised by Debono in conjunction with the Principal Permanent Secretary was the first step towards a revised edition of the Laws of Malta when antiquated legislation was struck off the book.

The commission’s role is to review legislation, propose consolidation where necessary and ensure that language conflicts between the Maltese and English versions are resolved. It may also carry out other work assigned to it by the justice minister.

However, its work remains largely unknown since the commission is not obliged to publish any annual reports and recommendations made to the justice minister.

“The Law Commission has not consolidated legislation, in view of the fact that this is presently an ongoing project. The recommendations of the Law Commission are provided to the minister responsible who has the capacity to act. However, it would not be recommendable to publish any recommendations so provided, based on the fact that some may be subject to internal discussion,” Mizzi said when asked for a breakdown of the work conducted by the commission since 2013.

The last consolidation of laws took place in 1984.

He added that the law of 1980 regulating the Law Commissioner does not stipulate whether a report of any kind should be drafted and handed to the minister, Cabinet, or parliament.

“In view of this, there are no annual reports to be provided with details and breakdowns of the work of the Law Commission,” Mizzi said.

Justice Minister Edward Zammit Lewis said the current administration made sure the commission was active and fully functioning.

He said government invested more than €150,000 to refurbish offices in Valletta and provide the commission with full-time staff and consultants.

“Throughout my time as minister responsible for justice, I continued to work closely with Law Commissioner Judge Antonio Mizzi, who continues to provide researched reports to improve our legislative framework and improve the efficiency in our justice system,” Zammit Lewis said.

He said any reforms emanating from the commission’s work were concluded by the minister through proposed legislative changes.

An exercise carried out in 2014 to clean up Malta’s statute book led government to repeal 36 outdated laws and 116 legal notices. Another nine laws were consolidated.

The spring-cleaning exercise, dubbed Repeals Day, was part of government’s attempt to cut bureaucracy and simplify public administration.