The number of legal books and articles published by the Faculty of Law in the past years was seriously deficient, Doctor of Laws graduate Juliette Galea insisted.

"Students who have to follow the Mamo Notes or those penned by Caruana Galizia (with all respect to the authors) would be forgiven for thinking that they had enrolled for a history course," she told fellow students during her address at yesterday's graduation ceremony at the University of Malta.

The fact that students were obliged to develop their personal research in no way exempted those who were supposed to serve as an inspiration and contribute to developing the country's legal system.

Another point Dr Galea raised was the fact that while the students welcomed the participation of part-time lecturers, it was disheartening when these never turned up.

"The number of times when we turned up for a lecture and no lecturer showed up has been nauseating," she said.

Students were also finding it hard to develop their studies as a result of the limited number of books available in the university's main library. This problem had been somewhat alleviated by the fact that the Faculty of Law had opened a legal library within the faculty.

On a positive note, Dr Galea said the students had welcomed the opportunity to study at a foreign university for a few months as part of the Erasmus programme.

"Several of us participated in this programme and this has been one of the best and most wonderful academic experiences for us throughout the entire course," she said.

While looking on to an uncertain future, Dr Galea encouraged the graduates to adopt the Latin maxim carpe diem (grab the moment) in life.