Malta’s pre-eminent dualist status

Abstract

Under British rule and prior to European Union (EU) accession, Malta had always been a dualist state, in so far as the relationship between international law and municipal law was concerned. With EU accession, a tinge of monism was introduced into the Maltese legal system in relation to EU regulations and decisions, once these do not require transposition. However, this element of monism cannot be said to have radically transformed Malta into a monist-dualist hybrid state, as the Maltese legal system continues to be primarily dualist in nature and, limitedly only to the case of certain (and not all) EU laws referred to above, monist. Hence, this article sets out to prove the hypothesis that monism is partially embedded within the Maltese legal system with dualism undoubtedly continuing to reign supreme therein. [excerpt]