The judicial appointments made by this government have “all been successful”, according to Justice Minister Owen Bonnici who yesterday warned against reforming the system “for the worse”.

He was reacting to criticism by the Chamber of Advocates that the government was ignoring recommendations to review the way judicial appointments were made.

The government had made an electoral pledge to review the system that currently gives Cabinet the final say as to who is appointed to the bench.

The proposed changes form part of an extensive report by a commission headed by former Europe Court of Human Rights judge Giovanni Bonello. These have been translated into a mega justice reform Bill, which has yet to be debated in Parliament.

“The absolute majority of our appointments have been beneficial to the justice sector. This system has been in place since before World War II and successive governments have made appointments this way,” he said, adding he was open to debate.

Dr Bonnici, however, told the Times of Malta he was concerned about changing the system for the worse. “Yes, we will discuss changing the system and we are open to debate, but we have to tread with caution not to make the system worse,” he said.

He said one of the proposals to amend the appointment system had been to set up a consultative body. This, he warned, could backfire. “The last time we did this, we all know what happened: we lost out on a good potential member of the judiciary,” Dr Bonnici said, referring to when the Commission for the Administration of Justice expressed doubts on lawyer André Camilleri’s credentials for the position of judge.

The discussion on the judicial appointment reform was revived earlier this week following media reports that Chief Justice Silvio Camilleri had submitted an application to become Malta’s second judge at the European Court of Justice.