A draft law regulating the legal profession has been in limbo for the past four years despite various promises by the Justice Minister to present it to Parliament.

The Bill, which aims to put Malta’s legal profession at par with mainstream Europe, was originally published in 2012 but never made it to Parliament as the election was held the following year, when there was a change in government.

Following Labour’s election to power, talks were held between the Chamber of Advocates and the government to fine-tune the published draft law and then have it approved by the House.

Justice Minister Owen Bonnici said in 2014 the government was about to publish the new Bill but this never happened and the state of play is unknown.

Saying the Bill would be published “in the next few weeks”, Dr Bonnici had been reported by this newspaper saying the proposed law “aimed at ensuring that lawyers were competent and had integrity, by for example, ensuring continuous professional development”.

A veteran lawyer told the Times of Malta the draft law had been written and studied in detail and was presented to Cabinet. “However, for some reason, the [amended] Bill was never published and it seems it never made it through Cabinet,” the lawyer remarked.

Questions to the Justice Ministry and the Chamber of Advocates on why the amended Bill had not been published yet had not been answered by the time of writing.

Government sources said there appeared to be disagreement about some of the proposed provisions. For example, they noted, the government did not like the idea that warrants would be issued by the Chamber of Advocates in line with established criteria.

“It seems the government wants to keep issuing warrants itself rather than allow the competent professional body to auto-administer the profession,” a member of the Chamber of Advocates said.

Meanwhile, members of the profession are divided over whether lawyers should be involved in business while also practising as lawyers.

In an article on The Sunday Times of Malta, Giovanni Bonello, a former judge of the European Court of Human Rights who had been commissioned by the government to propose a radical change in the justice system, insisted that lawyers and business did not mix.

Dr Bonello said elsewhere in Europe a lawyer or a member of the judiciary would not be able to engage in trade or commerce.

Lawyers approached by this newspaper said that, in principle, they agreed with Dr Bonello but had reservations on how the restriction would be implemented.

“This is something which splits the profession. There are too many vested interests to change this now although, ideally, it should be the way Dr Bonello is arguing,” an experienced lawyer said.

Agreeing with Dr Bonello that lawyers with business interests were more open to unethical behaviour, he pointed out that the matter was very complex. Another lawyer who has been practising for over 30 years said it was not easy to draw a line.

“How can one define a business? Are the financial services, which involve a lot of lawyers and legal work, to be considered a business? I think the solution is to regulate lawyers with a very high level of expected ethical behaviour and take disciplinary action against those behaving unethically,” he said.

He admitted it was not as simple as it might seem.

In his article, Dr Bonello sarcastically suggested that lawyers could enjoy joint membership of the Chamber of Commerce, Enterprise and Industry and the Chamber of Advocates “with an attractive discount”.

When asked about the matter, a Justice Ministry spokesman said Dr Bonnici “has no intention to weigh in on the Nationalist Party’s internal conflicts”.

The Chamber of Lawyers was asked for a reaction but no replies were forthcoming.