Professor of Criminal Law
Randon was born in Vittoriosa. He studied at the University of Malta and graduated BA in August 1898 and an LLD in August 1901. Eight years later he was appointed professor of criminal law at the institution.
He was appointed examiner on May 23, 1908 and Professor of Criminal Law at the University on July 22, 1909 on the recommendation of the General Council after the Chair had been relinquished by Dr Giovanni Battista Mifsud* who had been appointed to the Judicial Bench.
Professor Randon never practised as a lawyer in the courtrooms, not even as an advocate of criminal law of which he was academically an expert. He preferred to make an academic career and continued to lecture within the Faculty of Law until he retired on pension on 1 July 1939. He taught criminal law for over thirty years.
Luigi Arnaldo Randon was an orator of great fantasy who impressed his audiences and was one of the most popular lecturers in the university in the interwar period.
He commemorated patriot Sir Filippo Sceberras and commented on L’Inferno by Dante. He once delivered an oration in the church of St Jacob in the presence of Archbishop Pietro Pace.
Luigi Arnaldo Randon was a strong ‘Nationalist’, and a staunch defender of the Roman Catholic Apostolic Religion. He belonged to the pro-italian culture and was one of the first members and vice president of La Giovine Malta. He was elected senator in the PN’s interests in 1927 and 1932.
In 1918 Randon was one of the members of a commission created to examine the drafting of a Constitution that the British Government was proposing to offer to the people of Malta.
Professor Randon was accused by Dr Paul Boffa of denigrating the native vernacular in the Legislature by qualifying it ‘a jargon’ in one of the sittings of the Senate in the 1927-1930 legislature.
He was so taken to task by the leader of the MLP in 1929, who in flying sheets lamented that Maltese was being called ‘Ilsien tal-Kċina’.
Professor Randon did speak on the status of the Maltese language that had become, by an ad hoc legislative enactment, an optional tongue in the courts of law in Malta in line with the Constitution Letters Patent of 1921 that had prescribed Italian, and English, in default of sufficient knowledge of Italian as a compulsory language of the judicial system.
Professor Randon did call Maltese ‘a jargon’ or else ‘domestic language’ in comparison to Italian which he insisted was ‘the language of culture’ of the country. However, at the same time, in his usual fit of controversy, he clarified that nobody loved the Maltese language more than him.
Sir Augustis Bartolo, Deputy Leader of the Constitutional Party, editor of the Daily Malta Chronicle, and a staunch propagator of the English language and a very erudite person in English literature in Malta during the long-drawn-out ‘Pari Passu’ issue that was legislatively settled forever under the first responsible government had ‘Ġiġi Randon’ as his biggest friend.
Sir Augustus best once declared that he loved and respected Professor Randon for his kind-heartedness and considered him one of the best writers in Italian of his time in the country, but did not see eye to eye with him that Maltese should not be used in the cultural life of their motherland.
Professor Randon was a writer on political, historical and religious themes.
He was a friend of and corresponded with famous Italian men of letters such as Giovanni Carducci, Luigi Capuana, and Edmondo De Amicis. His poems were published mainly in Malta Letteraria (1904-1907). He also published ‘Origine e Sviluppo del governo Popolare in Ingilterra’ (undated).
Luigi Arnaldo Randon married Evellina, known as Evy, born Said on 5 April 1921 and they had two children, Gaby and Miriam.
Professor Randon died after a long illness at the age of 67 at Rabat and was buried in the church of St Augustine, Rabat.
This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.