Judicial appointments under the current system have been mostly successful, according to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici who yesterday warned against reforming the system “for the worse”.
He was reacting to criticism by the Chamber of Advocates that the government was ignoring recommendations to review the way judicial appointments were made.
The government had made an electoral pledge to review the system that currently gives Cabinet the final say as to who is appointed to the bench. The proposed changes form part of an extensive report by a commission headed by former Europe Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello.
"Yes, we will discuss changing the system and we are open to debate, but we have to tread with caution not to make the system worse,” the minister said.
He said one of the proposals to amend the appointment system had been to set up a consultative body. This, he warned, could backfire. “The last time we did this, we all know what happened: we lost out on a good potential member of the judiciary,” Dr Bonnici said, referring to when the Commission for the Administration of Justice expressed doubts on lawyer André Camilleri’s credentials for the position of judge.
The discussion on the judicial appointment reform was revived earlier this week following media reports that Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri had submitted an application to become Malta’s second judge at the European Court of Justice.
The Bonello commission had proposed to dilute the justice minister’s sole discretion as at present. Although the final decision would still rest with the government, it had been proposed that a six-member autonomous authority would carry out a selection process to choose and advise on suitable candidates for the Bench.