Judge De Bono

Abstract

PERHAPS out of all the makes which now only constitute appropriate epitaph to the great legal luminaries of the past-perhaps the one most familiar to Law Students is that of Judge Paolo De Bono. His "Storia della Legislazione in Malta" and his "Fallimento nel Diritto Maltese" form part of the curriculum of the legal studies carried out in our University. I need, therefore, make no introduction; his works have ensured, maybe, perennial fame. But can we say that we know him? His legal works and his elaborate judgments stand forth in perpetual testimony of his acumen and the heights of legal doctrine to which he did attain. But to know the man, we have to review the "ups and downs" of his life, the unostentatious work which he silently and perhaps unremuneratively performed his efforts to tread the path of virtue by giving counsel and assistance to the needful and in general, all the elements which reflect on the inward life, on the Spirit - for the Spirit makes the man.