The style of Maltese judgments in relation to the formal and linguistic aspects

Abstract

This is a study into the art of rendering judgements in Malta. Judgement writing is the end product of proceedings in Court and with today’s society becoming more aware of its rights and consequently more litigious, judgements are becoming more numerous. Judges are faced with the need and difficulty to render judgments on a daily basis. In the Maltese system, the judges’ academic background is that of a lawyer and hence when a judge is appointed he is bound to absorb and use previous models of judgment writing. This research, however modest its contribution, aims to discover the way the Maltese judiciary uses formal and linguistic aspects in their style or styles of judgements whilst maintaining due deference to the concept of the Rule of Law in the delivery of the same. It does not have as its objective to look into theories of adjudication or to elicit one particular style, it is rather a discovery of possible methods whilst signalling those which are notoriously abandoned. It is convenient in the first part to precise the meaning given to a judgment so as to locate the subject matter under study. The constitutive elements making up the formal notions employed in the rendering of a judgment such as motivation and publicity will be examined in the second part. This follows, a study as to the language and linguistics used in judgment writing and the laws dealing with judgements. This section will study amongst others, the Speech Act theory and synonymy in translation. An insight into the methodology and literature review will be explained in the fourth section. The conclusion drawn at the end continues to tie the Rule of Law with the style used for judgment writing in Malta for it cannot be detached from judgements which in turn epitomise it.