Undermining the constitution

Abstract

A bill presented by the government threatens democracy, rule of law. The Constitutional Court of Malta, in line with the consistent and well-established case law of the European Court of Human Rights, has ruled on several occasions that stiff administrative penalties constitute a criminal sanction. According to the Maltese constitution, these can only be applied by a court of law, composed of judges or magistrates. The government is now trying to stultify these judgments and trip the Constitutional Court by amending the constitution through a simple ordinary majority in parliament, rather than by the two-thirds majority imposed by the constitution.