Study-Unit Description

Study-Unit Description


CODE PBL3019

 
TITLE National Security Law

 
UM LEVEL 03 - Years 2, 3, 4 in Modular Undergraduate Course

 
MQF LEVEL 6

 
ECTS CREDITS 4

 
DEPARTMENT Public Law

 
DESCRIPTION This study-unit addresses national security law from a constitutional, human rights and criminal law perspective. It will discuss national security provisions in Maltese Law. Reference will be made to the functions of the Security Services, the interception of communications, the Security Services Commissioner, parliamentary scrutiny of the Security Services, official secrecy, crimes against the state, emergency powers, terrorism legislation, and the handling of classified information at trial.

Pertinent European Court of Human Rights judgments relating to state security will also be discussed.

Study-unit Aims:

This study-unit aims to bring National Security Law to the attention of students following this study-unit. Students will be in a better position to know where to find national security law and case law, to analyse it, to write about it and to dissect it into its main and subsidiary components.

Learning Outcomes:

1. Knowledge & Understanding
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Identify the constitutive ingredients of national security law;
- Master the pertinent case law of the European Court of Human Rights on National Security Law;
- Discuss the various components taught on national security law and how these components interact together.

2. Skills
By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to:

- Write on national security law;
- Interpret national security law through a study of case law;
- Apply national security law to concrete scenarios.

Main Text/s and any supplementary readings:

- Kevin Aquilina, ‘Treason and Sedition in Maltese Law’, LL.D. thesis, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta, Msida, 1998.
- Robert L. Pfaltzgraff, Uri Ra’anan and Warren Milberg, ‘Intelligence Policy and National Security’, Macmillan, 1981.
- David Mansfield, ‘Assessing the Effects of Terrorism on National Security Policies: the Case of Britain and France, B.A. (Hons.) European Studies dissertation, 2005.
- Michael Supperstone, ‘Brownlie’s Law of Public Order and National Security’, London, Butterworths, 1981.
- David Leigh, ‘The Wilson Plot: The Intelligence Services and the Discrediting of a Prime Minister’, Heinemann, 1988.
- Michael Howard, British Intelligence in the Second World War’, London: HMSO, 1991.
- Nigel West and Jon Woranoff, Historical Dictionary of International Intelligence’, Scarecrow P, 2006.
- Peter Hennessy et al, ‘The New Protective State: Government, Intelligence and Terrorism’, Continuum, London, 2007.

 
STUDY-UNIT TYPE Lecture

 
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT
Assessment Component/s Assessment Due Sept. Asst Session Weighting
Assignment SEM1 Yes 100%

 
LECTURER/S Kevin Aquilina

 

 
The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints.
Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice.
It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2023/4. It may be subject to change in subsequent years.

https://www.um.edu.mt/course/studyunit