Civil marriages performed in international waters on Maltese-registered cruise liners will be registered in Malta in terms of a Bill which was approved through second reading and committee in Parliament last night. Justice Minister Tonio Borg said the Bill featured a range of amendments to civil law. One of the most important amendments will enable men to file an action for disavowal of children said to be theirs beyond the time limit currently allowed by law.
Dr Borg said the amendment followed a European Court ruling. To date a man had six months from the birth of a child to his wife to prove that he was not the father. It was now being laid down that a court may allow the husband sufficient time to disavow paternity after he learns that the child is not his, even if that happens more than six months after the birth. The court, however, has to consider the rights of both the child and the father.
Furthermore, a child carrying the surname of a man found not to have been its father will be able to retain the surname unless a court decides otherwise. However normal rights of succession will not apply. The child may assume the mother's maiden name. Turning to the amendments on civil marriage, Dr Borg said that to date, civil marriages could only be registered in Malta if they took place on the island, before a marriage registrar. Now such marriages could take place in international waters on board Maltese-registered cruise ships under the authority of the master.
Dr Borg said another aspect of the Bill amended the Identity Cards Act in view of Malta's membership of the Schengen area. He said that one could now freely travel across Europe using the identity card. The Bill was therefore laying down that when a court prohibited a person from travelling or when a person was under bail, the police could withhold the holder's identity card and issue a new one which clearly stated that the holder could not travel.
Anġlu Farrugia (MLP) said the opposition agreed with these amendments although one hoped there would not be many cases of disavowal. Although the court was duty-bound to give the man the authorisation to disavow a child that was not his own, it would also do well to balance this with a child's best interests. However, every case had its own merits, especially if the disavowal case was being handled in tandem with another one for separation between the couple.
Winding up, Parliamentary Secretary Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici said the amendments gave the court every opportunity to discern the motives of the plaintiff seeking to disavow a child. If the court saw that there was something amiss in the proceedings, it could refuse the opportunity. Even asking for a DNA test on the children could be humiliating and traumatic to the children themselves, who might infer that the man they had always known to be their father was now not regarding them as such. It was even more humiliating if the test results showed that the children were in fact the man's own. Every care had been taken to protect the family while not hampering any man's right to safeguard his own interests.
He stressed that while civil marriages in international waters on Maltese-registered ships would be recognised, the usual formalities had to be followed. The Bill was given a unanimous second reading and approved in committee.