Reform of the institute of emphyteusis

Abstract

One of the first notions which every new student of law comes across is-that law is essentially dynamic. This is so because the purpose of law is to regulate the relations between human beings, which relations necessarily change both in space and in time. Indeed, if law were static, it would cease to serve its purpose when new conditions present themselves. Hence the very important role which the legal reformer plays in the well-being of the community which he serves. No legal reformer can be said to be more occupied than the legal reformer of that branch of law called Civil Law. The reason is too obvious: many of the rules to be found in this branch of law may be said to accompany the members of any community from the cradle to the grave. Hence, the more new conditions keep coming to the fore, the more the legal reformer of Civil Law bas tasks to perform. However, in many instances, because of various reasons, several rules of Civil Law, in spite of the need of reform, remain unchanged; this causes a detriment to the good that may be exacted from the timely reform of such rules. Indeed, one of the institutes of Civil Law which should have attracted the attention of the Maltese law reformer is the institute of emphyteusis. However, except for some minor amendments made to some of the rules to be in this institute, and the abolition of eightprovisions of the institute dealing with the right of preference , the institute has remained as it was at the time of the promulgation of Ordinance VII of 1868, now forming Book Second of Chapter 23 of the Laws of Malta.