A court has thrown out a constitutional application claiming that the refusal by the courts to examine a dispute over ranks in an order of chivalry was in violation of the right to a fair hearing.
Mr Baldacchino cannot therefore expect to have a ruling on his alleged rights which, according to law, do not exist
Mr Justice Tonio Mallia was deciding a case filed by Alfred Joseph Baldacchino against the Attorney General.
Mr Baldacchino told the court that in his capacity of Grand Master of the Ordo Byzanatinus Sancti Sepulchri he had instituted an action against Carmel Sandro Calleja and David Formosa on the basis that the two were illegally passing themselves off as Deputy Grand Master and Grand Chancellor of the Order.
However, his action had been dismissed by the First Hall of the Civil Court and, later, by the Court of Appeal on grounds that the courts were precluded, in terms of local law, from examining or deciding upon titles of nobility or of Orders of such nature. The decisions, claimed Mr Baldacchino, were in violation of his right to access to the courts for the determination of his civil rights or obligations and he requested the First Hall of the Civil Court, in its constitutional jurisdiction, to deliver a ruling in his favour.
Mr Justice Mallia said that the Government had taken a political decision to make the country a Republic. As a result, titles of nobility deriving from monarchy were not officially recognised in Malta. Mr Baldacchino could not therefore expect to have a ruling on his alleged rights which, according to law, did not exist.
The court added that case law of the European Court of Human Rights had established that titles linked to an order were not a legal possession in terms of the European Convention of Human Rights. The Maltese Government had not deprived title holders of their titles nor, more importantly, had it deprived such title holders of the properties linked to their titles. The European Court had ruled that, where State measures did not affect the economic value of a title, then there was no right to be protected.
In the case filed by former Prince Bernadotte against Sweden, the European Court had ruled that the dispute in question (which related to the refusal of the Swedish King to restore his title of prince) did not concern a right that could be said to be recognised nor could it constitute a violation of the right to access to the courts.