Government proposes Miriam Hayman for chief justice role
Proposal made during meeting between government, PN
The government has proposed that judge Miriam Hayman should be Malta's next chief justice.
Times of Malta is informed that the proposal was made during a recent meeting between Justice Minister Jonathan Attard and his Nationalist Party counterpart Joe Giglio.
The government's last proposed nominee, judge Consuelo Scerri Herrera, failed to obtain the necessary two-thirds majority in parliament for the post.
Talks for the nomination restarted earlier this month, with Abela and Opposition leader Alex Borg holding what they described as a "healthy discussion".
On Thursday, the prime minister hit out at suggestions by Borg that the government was trying to postpone the chief justice decision until after a general election.
Hayman was appointed as a judge by Abela's predecessor Joseph Muscat in 2015.
She has used her inaugural speech to advocate for better conditions for members of the judiciary, describing their retirement pension as “pathetic and humiliating”.
Conditions for the judiciary have improved markedly since then.
She also had harsh words for legal aid lawyers who, she said, were not serving their clients in the best way possible and, sometimes, failed to appear in court to defend them, even when these were still under preventive arrest.
Before being appointed as a judge, Hayman spent 17 years as a magistrate, during which she was known for her no-nonsense approach.
Breaking the deadlock
The appointment of a chief justice needs the support of two-thirds of the members of the House.
The law does not provide for an anti-deadlock mechanism that can force through a nominee if no two-thirds majority can be achieved.
Following the deadlock over Scerri Herrera, the prime minister suggested that the time has come for such a mechanism.
He said this should apply not only to the appointment of the chief justice, but also to the appointment of the Auditor General, Deputy Auditor General and Ombudsman.
However, Abela acknowledged that introducing an anti-deadlock mechanism could prove difficult, as such a change would itself require a two-thirds majority vote, since the provision is entrenched in the constitution.
The requirement for a two-thirds majority vote, without an accompanying anti-deadlock mechanism, to appoint the chief justice was approved in 2020.
President Myriam Debono has urged Abela and Borg to reach an agreement in parliament on the chief justice appointment.
Attempts by the Opposition to bring the president in as a mediator were shot down.
The president stressed that the matter needs to be decided in parliament.