The Legal Research Society

In the south of Europe the warmer weather brings with it a heated debate about illegal immigration as the calmer seas allow boat loads of migrants to cross the Mediterranean in search of a better life. Despite the good weather, their journey is often unsafe and many perish at sea. Those who survive the crossing find that their ordeal is not over. Most European States have detention policies whereby illegal immigrants rescued at sea or intercepted on the shore are held in camps pending conferment of refugee status or repatriation. The detention periods vary from one Member State to another, with France capping the period at 30 days, and the United Kingdom having no upper limit. A draft European directive would have capped the period of detention at six months, with a possible extension of a further twelve months under special circumstances (See the EU Observer’s report here ). In other words, the directive would have allowed Member States to detain immigrants for eighteen month...

Malta’s electoral laws divide the tiny State into 13 districts of more or less equal size, each electing five members of Parliament. This means that in order to be elected to Parliament, a candidate must garner a quota of 16% of votes cast in a district, through a single transferable vote system (save for the fifth candidate elected in each district who often does not reach the quota but is elected because every other candidate is eliminated). In practice this also means that a political party must enjoy almost 16% support in an electoral district in order to be represented in Parliament.Proposals to adopt a 5% national quota have been resisted by the two major parties, thus virtually guaranteeing that they will be the only two parties in Parliament in a winner takes all system. This has been the subject of much heated debate on a popular Maltese blog . The democratic advantages of greater pluralism are intuitive to some, while the advantages of stability engendered in a two-party sys...

Most States have some archaic laws on their books. Some States choose to enforce them. Malta , an otherwise liberal democracy with European ideals, is one of the latter group. The Times of Malta today reports about a human rights appeal in this case . The facts of the case are quite straightforward. On 20th August 2006 a young lady went to one of Malta's many sandy beaches and bathed 'sans bikini top' . That is pretty much it. I presume that she was surprised to find herself accused of a contravention in terms of Article 338 of the Criminal Code . That article, introduced in 1933, provides that 'every person is guilty of an offence against public order who...in the harbours, on the seashore, or in any other public place, exposes himself naked or is indecently dressed.' The Court of Magistrates found the accused guilty. She was discharged on the condition that she did not commit any other offence within a week. She appealed the judgment on the grounds that it was in...