The jury system in Malta

Abstract

The Maltese jury system is given some prominence, alongside with the English and the Scottish systems, in a volume of the monumental Digesto Italiano, the Italian juridical encyclopaedia, which was published at the beginning of the present century and dedicated a few paragraphs to the subject. But apart from this brief reference to it, outside Malta the subject has so far remained practically unknown. In Malta trial by jury was an English importation and was introduced gradually and to some extent also grudgingly. It was feared at first that this typically English institution, perilously engrafted upon an essentially Roman legal system with very ancient traditions, might not thrive. And yet it is interesting to note that it was the Maltese themselves who, very soon after