Malta has been ranked 30th out of 142 countries on a global rule of law index, though it lags most of its peers in Europe and North America.
The World Justice Project index gave Malta an overall score of 0.67 out of 1, as the country retained its rank as 30th out of the 142 countries surveyed.
Malta also retained its rank of 22nd out of 30 among its peers from the European Union, European Free Trade Association and North America.
The nine countries that scored worse than Malta on a regional level were Cyprus, Italy, Poland, the Slovak Republic, Croatia, Romania, Greece, Bulgaria and Hungary.
Rule of law was found to have been on the decrease in 57% of the countries surveyed, including Malta.
The region’s top performer is Denmark, which also ranked 1st globally, followed by Norway and Finland.
In the last year, 20 out of the 31 countries grouped in this region experienced a decline in the rule of law and of those,13 had already seen a decline in the year prior.
What does the index measure?
The index calculates scores based on how respondents judge the country on eight criteria: constraints on government powers, the absence of corruption, open government, fundamental rights, order and security, regulatory enforcement, civil justice and criminal justice.
Malta's score decreased in four of these eight categories, most notably in the absence of corruption, where the score decreased by -0.03.
When it comes to constraints on government powers, regulatory enforcement, and criminal justice, Malta's score dropped by -0.01.
The country's scores did not change in other categories.
Malta's global score of 0.67 was slightly lower than the 0.68 it ranked in the previous version of the index. However, none of the changes in Malta's score were deemed statistically significant by report writers.
As with its global ranking, Malta ranked well on a global level, with high scores in seven of the eight categories. The only outlier is civil justice, where Malta ranked 48th out of 142 countries.
But on a regional level, Malta's scores placed it towards the back of the pack for most categories. The one exception was order and security, where it ranked 7th out of 31.
Some 63% of countries, including Malta saw a decrease in fundamental rights and some 59%, also including Malta, saw constraints on government power slipping in the past year.