LEGAL, BUT RIGHT?

Judge (Emeritus) of the European Court of Human Rights Giovanni Bonello made such an impact on the world of human rights that even his dissenting judgments are cited as examples of the proper way to go about the vital task of protecting your and my rights. His predecessor in the post as Malta's nominated judge to the EHCR, Chief Justice (Retd.) Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, saw fit lately to take issue with Judge (Emeritus) Bonello, following in the footsteps of no less a legal luminary than Dr Franco Debono, who had also perceived some error in Bonello's ways.

Far be it from me to cast judgment on the merits and demerits of the contenders for academic respect mentioned in the previous paragraph, but those with an ear for language and nuance will have, perhaps, noted my leanings.

Mifsud Bonnici appears to be of the opinion, one also held by parliamentarians of a certain stripe, that because Parliament can change all law, from the Constitution down, provided it has the requisite strength in numbers, it is therefore Parliament that is the supreme authority in the land. This opinion ignores, as do the parliamentarians who unthinkingly espouse it, the simple fact that in a country governed by the Rule of Law, as ours is, supreme authority lies at some point within the spectrum of balance between the three, or four if you include the Fourth Estate, pillars, namely the Legislative, the Judiciary and the Executive.

My brain is but that of a frog compared to that possessed by one (but only one, and no prizes for guessing which) of the three gentlemen that star in the opening paragraph, but even I am able to grasp this concept, one that is perhaps too subtle for less elastic minds.

It would be legal, it is true to say, for Parliament, perhaps consequent on two-thirds of the Honourable Members taking leave of their senses simultaneously, to suspend human rights in one fell swoop, making it, for instance, a capital offence for bloggers to poke fun at retired Chief Justices or extant MPs, but would it be consonant with the Rule of Law?

To use a mundane example, it was legal for a Judge sitting in the Civil Court to condemn an air-conditioning technician to being slapped in irons for failing to have the A/C working, but was it right?

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.