THE BRITISH ACADEMY   

The Legacy of the British Empire on the Administration of Justice in Malta

A research grant from the British Academy/Association of Commonwealth Universities scheme for international collaboration. The research addresses the effects of the Empire on police and prison policy in Malta. during the 19th Century. The Institute is collaborating with the Department of Sociological Studies, University of Sheffield. 

Researchers: Dr Paul Knepper (University of Sheffield), Dr Jacqueline Azzopardi and Dr Sandra Scicluna

Under this grant we have published:

Prisoners of the Sun: The British Empire and Imprisonment in Malta in the Early Nineteenth Century

Jacqueline Azzopardi and Sandra Scicluna, together with Paul Knepper of the University of Sheffield, received a research grant from the Association of Commonwealth Universities/British Academy scheme for international collaboration. The research deals with the legacy of the British Empire on the administration of justice in Malta; it focuses on the beginning of prison and police practises in the nineteenth century.  The funds supported archival research in Malta, at the National Library and National Archives, and also in the United Kingdom, at the National Archives (Kew) and the British Library.  Additional research for this project took place at the National Library of Ireland in Dublin. 

Collaboration between the University of Malta and the University of Sheffield has led to two articles in academic journals: Sandra Scicluna and Paul Knepper, 'Prisoners of the Sun: The British Empire and Imprisonment in Malta in the Early Nineteenth Century' British Journal of Criminology, 48 (2008), 502-21 and Jacqueline Azzopardi and Paul Knepper, 'The Police, the Empire and the Emergence of Fingerprint Technology in Malta' Criminology and Criminal Justice, (in press). A third research paper, tentatively entitled, 'Between the Empire and the Church: Women Prisoners in Nineteenth Century Malta' is underway.