The contribution of the court of appeal in the interpretation of development planning law

Abstract

Various amendments to the Development Planning Act (DPA) 1992 were envisaged by means of ACT No. XXI of 2001, including the introduction of article 52 which provided for a new enforcement procedure, and article 33 of Chapter 356 from which the Court of Appeal derived the concept of commitment. The bringing into force of the Local Plans in 2006 once again resulted in changes in the decisions of the Planning Authority which is now referred to as the the Malta Environment and Planning Authority (MEPA), the Planning Appeals Board and the Court of Appeal. The last amendments were introduced recently in 2010 by means of L.N 512 which repealed the DPA altogether and made way for the new Environment and Development Planning Act encapsulated with Chapter 504 of the Laws of Malta. This brought with it other major changes such as the Planning Appeals Board, which is now redesignated the 'Environment & Planning Review Tribunal', being given a new composition in terms of its members. This thesis deals primarily with the various judgments delivered by the Court of Appeal in the context of development planning in particular after the amendments introduced by Act No. XXI of 2001, with the aim of comparing the decisions given by it before and after such changes, to assess the impact of the Local Plans via other laws and policies in force, and to analyse the changes which occurred after the amendments of 2010. The case-law related within this thesis focuses on the broad competence of the Appeals Board or Tribunal and the limited jurisdiction of the Court of Appeal, the new enforcement procedure, the concepts of commitment, cerimus paribus, deemed approval, the amendments relating to third party appeals and the importance of reasoned decisions within all judgments.