The Administrative Code [First draft]

Abstract

On Monday 7 May 2012, Professor Kevin Aquilina, Dean of the Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta, presented a first draft of an Administrative Code to the Select Committee on Re-codification and Consolidation of Laws of the House of Representatives. Professor Aquilina had been requested by the said Committee to assist it in its work by providing expert advice on legal drafting in general and by drawing up various reports on the re-codification and consolidation of laws. The Select Committee subsequently asked him to draw up an Administrative Code for Malta. On 29 March 2010 the Select Committee began to discuss with Professor Aquilina the re-codification of laws in general as well as which category of laws should be re-codified. In subsequent sittings of the Select Committee, the advantages and disadvantages of codification and developing a Code of Administrative Law were discussed with Professor Aquilina. The latter submitted a number of reports to the Committee identifying how the laws of Malta should be re-codified under various subject headings. On the basis of these reports Professor Aquilina was requested to identify which laws were to be re-codified in an Administrative Code. After this report was approved by the Select Committee, Professor Aquilina was requested to embark upon a project of drafting an Administrative Code for Malta. The Select Committee was providing feedback on each section of the Code submitted to the Select Committee as the Code was being drafted. The short title of the Administrative Code reads that the Administrative Code is ‘A law to codify the administrative laws of Malta into one single Code, to set out the principles which ought to govern the public administration in its relationship with the individual, to establish an Administrative Court and to make ancillary and consequential provisions thereto. The first draft of the Administrative Code is spread over 497 pages of legal text and consists of 1017 articles, twenty-two schedules together with a draft Bill to amend the Constitution of Malta to bring the latter in line with the proposals made in the Administrative Code. When the first draft of the Administrative Code was submitted to the Select Committee it decided to carry out a consultation process on the first draft.