Pro-Italianism, treason and conspiracy in wartime Malta : a judicial inquiry into deportation & capital punishment as imperial deterrents

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to explore the main Imperial deterrents which accompanied the political saga (1939-1942) of the internment and deportation of Maltese nationals prior to the outbreak of The Second World War in Malta, as well as the singular case of espionage in Rex vs. Carmelo Borg Pisani (1942) who, after being convicted of high treason and conspiracy, was sent to the gallows. The paper aims at drawing the juridical implications of the crimes deterred, the juridico-ethical legitimacy emanating from the decisions undertaken by the British colonial authorities and the margin of juridical introspection with which the Courts of Malta witnessed the deportation sans a trial and formal accusation and a deontological assessment of the death penalty imposed on a British subject, a deterrent which only thirty years later was to be abolished by Act XXI. The research sheds light on the tenor of Debates of the Council of Government, reports of the Royal Commission, legislation from the Government Gazettes of the relevant period as well as the contribution of prominent figures such as Hon. Salvatore Cachia Zammit and Hon. Dr. Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici. In so doing, the paper purports to problematise an occurrence from a purely legal focus rather than recreating a historical narration. In tandem with the aforementioned, a re-examination of the 1939 Malta Defence Regulations Act is of paramount importance as well as the doctrine of non-deportation advocated during the discussion of Ordinance No.1 of 1942. Revisiting one of the bleakest chapters in Maltese history has to be a stoical embarcation based upon the premise that the very nature of deportation as a coercive measure, engulfed by colonial exigency and national security; necessarily entailed a commission of a crime, a legal accusation and an adequate opportunity of defence in court. The result was a miscarriage of justice which merely eight decades later is to be reexamined in light of Beccaria’s theory on the effectiveness of punishment, fundamentality of rights as a fledgling concept and the deontological assessment of Royal deterrents, including the death penalty.