The Opposition has proposed in a private bill presented today that appointments to the judiciary would be handled by an independent Judicial Services Appointment Authority.
The Justice Minister in a reaction said he took the Opposition with a pinch of salt. He reiterated government's commitment to reform the manner of appointments by the end of the legislature but did not exclude that other appointments will be made in the meantime (See below)
The Opposition bill was presented by the Deputy Leader of the Opposition Mario de Marco and the shadow minister for justice, Jason Azzopardi in the wake of the controversy over the government’s nomination of two new magistrates.
The Bill proposes that whenever members of the judiciary, including the Chief Justice, need to be recruited, a call for applications from lawyers would be issued by the new Authority.
The Authority would then consider the applications on the basis of a list of criteria including integrity and honesty, years of experience, knowledge of the law, absence of any commercial activity or business interests, per review and the financial situation of the applicant. Judges and Magistrates may not be nominated unless they have 15 years experience.
The list of applicants would be kept confidential.
The Authority would then rank the applicants and make its recommendations to the government which would advise the President to make the appointments.
The new Authority would be chaired by the Chief Justice and would include the president of the Chamber of Advocates, the Attorney General and two lawyers nominated each by the government and the opposition.
The Authority would have a fixed four-year-term which may be renewed once.
The Bill also proposes to raise the retirement age of the members of the judiciary to 68 but members can still opt to retire at 65.
PN SEEKING CONSENSUS
In comments after presenting the Bill to the Clerk of the House, Dr de Marco said the Opposition was seeking consensus with the government and civil society over its proposals.
"There is need for more transparency in the way judicial appointments are made," he said.
He pointed out that many of the proposals had also been made by the government-appointed commission headed by judge Giovanni Bonello and there was cross-party agreement about them.
"It is time to move from words to actions," he said, underlining the importance of the judiciary in a democratic society.
Asked why the changes were not made when the PN was in government, Dr de Marco said the system had served its purpose but the time had come to change.
JUSTICE MINISTER TAKES OPPOSITION WITH ‘A PINCH OF SALT’
In a reaction, Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said he took the Opposition’s proposal with a pinch of salt for three reasons:
The PN was in government for 25 years and did not see the need to make the changes at the time;
There was no mention of these changes in the electoral programmes of 2008 and 2013;
The Bonello Commission has asked the PN for its proposals, and none were forthcoming at the time.
Dr Bonnici told a press conference that notwithstanding all this, he was not discarding the Opposition Bill.
However the government priority was to tackle the backlog of cases in court.
He also reiterated the government’s commitment to reform the manner of appointments to the judiciary before the end of the legislature.
Asked if the government would hold-off on new appointments until the changes are made, Dr Bonnici said there were a number of vacancies in the judiciary and holding back on appointments would therefore harm the system.
BUSUTTIL MEETS CHAMBER OF ADVOCATES
Meanwhile, Opposition Leader Simon Busuttil had a meeting with the Chamber of Advocates this afternoon, with the discussion focused on the Opposition’s bill and the Chamber’s proposals.
Dr Busuttil said the Opposition was ready for an immediate debate of the Bill in parliament.
He appealed to the justice minister to halt all appointments to the judiciary until the changes are made.
The Chamber said it agreed with the appeal.