From my article in The Sunday Times today:
“Faced by all these failures of the democratic framework, we preferred to live under the illusion that the courts would fiercely protect us. The reputation is not altogether undeserved. Some of our judges and magistrates are brilliant legal minds, fearless defenders of justice and pursuivants of truth: wise women and men that leave fear of consequence outside their courtroom.
“By the way, that applies to a number of judges who in earlier stages of their lives were politically engaged and actively partisan. A partisan past is not necessarily an inescapable inhibition to fair and independent judgement.
“But a partisan past is material evidence in the argument that the power of Malta’s prime minister to choose who gets to be a magistrate or a judge bursts the bubble that our judiciary is truly independent.”