The Court of Criminal Appeal (with particular reference to the possibilities of appeal by the Attorney-General)

Abstract

Legal practitioners are faced time and time again with problems relating to criminal appeals, but few are those authors who have dedicated enough attention to these debatable issues. This applies to a much larger extent to the frequently aired controversy surrounding the right of the prosecutor in a criminal action to ask for a review of the decision of the lower court by a higher tribunal. Such a situation arises perhaps due to a common belief that no such right should exist. This opinion may gradually be diminishing in its popularity. A number of jurisdictions already provide a right of appeal to the prosecutor against an acquittal or against sentence and both the House of Lords and the U. S. Supreme Court have debated, at length, the proposition of introducing a prosecution right of appeal in determinate, well-defined cases. The main scope of this thesis is to examine the position obtaining under the Maltese Criminal Code. The right of appeal of the Attorney-General, in direct contrast to that of the accused, is very restricted. The time is possibly ripe, in line with the attitude taken up by other countries, for the Maltese legislature and judges to discuss and determine whether this limited right of appeal should judgements of too lenient. be extended, acquittal as allowing a wider sphere of review well as sentences considered as Unfortunately, much of the attention dedicated to the power of a court of appeal to review judgements delivered by a lower court, has been mainly concerned only with appeals from judgements pronounced by a superior court. This notwithstanding, this thesis will attempt to cover also the question whether the powers of appeal conferred upon the Attorney-General in the light of a judgement delivered by the Court of Judicial Police sitting as a court of criminal judicature require any amendment.