The study of quarantine under Maltese law : from 1800 to World War I

Abstract

Quarantine legislations reflect the exigencies of the government of the day either to impede the introduction of communicable diseases into the Maltese Islands or to hinder the spread of such diseases. The principal mover for the improvement of quarantine legislation was to safeguard the health of the British military troops stationed on the Island. Favourable quarantine legislation also served to make Malta the centre for the performance of quarantine and thus increasing economic wealth. This thesis aims at presenting a historico-legal narrative on the development of quarantine legislation in Malta from 1800 to World War I. The thesis starts with an introduction that sheds light on the aim of this thesis, the sources analysed and the method used. By way of necessity, the First Chapter of the thesis presents a picture of the quarantine legislation and machinery existing in the nineteenth century. This chapter imparts the first quarantine legislative developments that took place with the advent of the British Protectorate in 1800, which was followed by the granting of Malta to Britain as a colony in 1814. The second chapter contains the various sporadic quarantine legislations that were enacted subsequent to the plague of 1813, when the Treaty of Paris declared the Maltese Islands to be officially a British colony, till 1848. Chapter three focuses on the quarantine legislation enacted from 1849, in which year a Constitution introduced the elective principle in the Council of Government, till the end of the century. The twentieth century marked an era of consolidation and updating of quarantine laws and regulations. The study of such laws and regulations from 1900 till World War I is incorporated in Chapter four.