Governmental liability in tort and in the cases of judicial review

Abstract

This thesis attempts to examine the circumstances under which the government and public authorities may be sued by the ordinary citizen in the absence of any contractual relations between them. In Malta, the government and public authorities may be sued under two different spheres of law, namely, administrative law and civil law. Under Maltese Administrative Law, the administration may be sued for alleged illegal and ultra vires acts with the purpose of quashing such acts and with the aim of reinstating the complainant to the position obtaining prior to the execution of the administrative act. The second sphere of law under which the administration may be sued is the ordinary civil law of contract or tort. This thesis focuses on actions against the government on the basis of tort and actions against the government for judicial review. By examining a series of court judgments relative to tort and judicial review actions, this thesis attempts to illustrate what each action involves and what the functions of the two actions are. This is followed by an analysis of the circumstances in which an overlap may occur between a tort action and a judicial review action. The judgment Zamboni et v. Direttur tal-Kuntratti et. (2002) is an example of such a situation. Finally, a proposal to amend Article 469A of the COCP to further clarify the distinction between the two actions follows.