The problem of court delays in criminal procedure was raised by Mr Justice Joseph Galea Debono last month in the Court of Criminal Appeal. He noted that, once it is the judiciary that manage court cases, they determine how expeditiously trials are conducted.

The learned judge noted that it was unacceptable for criminal cases to be prolonged interminably as this was prejudicing the rights of both the accused and society. He reiterated that criminal cases should be decided in a reasonable time; such time limit should be mandatory and established by law. Commendable as they might be, such recommendations need to be supplemented by other initiatives to speed up criminal proceedings.

The criminal process does not permit proceedings in the absence of the accused. Should the accused fail to turn up for trial, the court has to put off the case. Although the court issues a warrant of arrest in such cases, it is not always executed by the police. So the government should resort to local wardens to ensure timely delivery of summons.

One way of reducing criminal cases is through decriminalisation and depenalisation. The recently-established Committee of the House of Representatives on the codification of the laws should compile a list of archaic criminal laws for repeal. It can also study minor criminal offences with a view to depenalisation.

Minor offences can be converted into administrative offences, triable by Commissioners for Justice or quasi-judicial tribunals. The jurisdiction of Commissioners for Justice can be extended to encompass all contraventions.

Better use of judicial assistants should be made in the criminal process. In civil procedure, it is possible for a judge to delegate to a judicial assistant the conduct of a pre-trial hearing, to compile evidence or to draw up a report thereupon. But in criminal proceedings, there is no analogous provision. Judicial assistants should be tasked by law with carrying out evidence compilation in the Court of Magistrates as a Court of Criminal Inquiry. Once that evidence is gathered it could then be forwarded to the Criminal Court or to the Court of Magistrates as a Court of Criminal Judicature for trial and judgment. This proposal would reduce the workload of magistrates, permitting them to concentrate on judgment delivery.

Mr Justice Galea Debono proposes the establishment of time-limits where these are lacking in the criminal process. Sometimes, the Attorney General sends the record of proceedings to the Magistrates' Court for production of additional evidence several times. He should, however, ensure that the police produce their evidence within the one-month period laid down by law. The Attorney General's right to send back to the Court of Magistrates the record of the inquiry should be capped at three times. If the required evidence is not available, then the AG should produce it during the trial.

Criminal law functions should be removed from the office of the AG and assigned to a new office of Director of Public Prosecutions.

The judiciary should be held accountable for case mismanagement. It would be opportune were the Commission for the Administration of Justice to recommend how to discipline the judiciary in the case of minor offences that ought not to lead to impeachment from office.

The inquiring magistrate's role needs to be revisited. A pool of magistrates could be appointed to deal specifically with such inquiries.

These measures, if implemented, would contribute to ensuring that the human right to a speedy trial is respected.