The Faculty of Laws at the University of Malta on Thursday held its eighth Foundation Day Commemoration, conferring its Award for Academic Excellence on President Emeritus of Malta Ugo Mifsud Bonnici.
Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was born in Bormla (Cospicua) on November 8, 1932. He was the youngest of Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici and Maria Ross’s three children. His siblings were Josette, who died at 11 months, and the late and lamented Professor Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, President Emeritus of the Maltese Courts and Judge Emeritus of the European Court of Human Rights.
His father, Carmelo, better known as ‘Il-Gross’ for his Falstaffian figure, is considered in historical documentation and collective memory as one of the leading criminologists in Malta and as one of the most brilliant orators in the halls of the Maltese legislature and law courts. Above all, he is also one of Malta’s greatest political giants and patriots of all time.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici belongs to one of the most distinguished political and legal households in Malta. His progenitors were Giuseppe Mifsud, a cleric, and Olympia Bonici whose family of noble extraction was founder of the arch-parish church of Żejtun.
He belongs to the Cottonera stock but other descendants originating from a Ħal Qormi ramification included formidable individuals varying from ascetic poets to engineering scientists of the highest quality.
It is unsurprising, therefore, that Ugo looked to his father as the greatest hero of his life. Yet, Ugo learned languages from his mother, the daughter of the official medical doctor of the Customs Francesco Saverio Ross. His mother Maria was rich in the local vernacular and vocabulary of Gozo and Cottonera and had a good ear for other tongues.
Ugo studied at St Edwards College, the Lyceum of Gozo and the University of Malta. He graduated B.A. and L.P. in 1952, and LL.D. in 1955. Five of his comrades at the Alma Mater had their fathers who had become advocates by following the same course of laws from 1919 to 1922, namely Joe Cachia, Victor Caruana Colombo, Mario Felice and René Frendo Randon.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici exercised the profession of advocate for more than 30 years until he was appointed Cabinet minister.
He was a practising lawyer with Dr Ċensu Scerri who had worked within the same office of his father Carmelo and had taken over his backlog until he had later been elevated to the judgeship.
He followed in the footsteps of his father by joining the Nationalist Party and by gaining the highest credentials in politics. He contested the general elections for the first time in 1966. He garnered 1,888 first preference votes and was the first to be elected from his fold.
He was uninterruptedly elected as a member of Parliament from the second electoral district from 1966 to 1992. He was a spokesman for the Opposition on the subject of education from 1972 to 1987.
He was elected President of the General Council of the PN and of the Administrative Council positions, which he occupied until 1987.
He was a pillar in the structural reform and re-organisation of the Nationalist Party and contributed to its transformation into a movement that was worthy of undertaking the governance of the country once it was entrusted with the reins of the administration by the electorate.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici was Electoral Commissioner in the Independence Referendum of 1964. It was his first occasion in which he rendered public service to the nation.
He was once invited by Dom Mintoff to be appointed as judge of the Criminal Court, but he refused forthwith because he disliked the job.
Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was a pillar in the structural reform and re-organisation of the Nationalist Party
He was one of the main representatives of the PN in the discussions held in 1974 and 1987 in connection with the constitutional amendment that led Malta to the status of a Republic and assured that the political party obtaining a majority of votes would assume the reins of government.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici was entrusted with the portfolio of Education when the PN won the general elections again after 17 years and was returned to government in May 1987, thus at the end of three Parliaments. He was appointed Minister of Education and the Interior in 1990 and Minister for Education and Human Resources in the wake of the general elections of 1992.
He was responsible for the major reforms in the field of Education which included the Education Act of 1988, providing for the grant of professional status to teachers, the setting up of the Schools Council, as well as the re-foundation and development of the University as an autonomous institution.
He was the minister responsible for the Museums and the Environment who undertook and piloted through Parliament the enactments establishing the National Archives as well as the Protection of the Environment – prototypes in the history of legislation in Malta.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici negotiated with Monsignor Pier Luigi Celata the State-Church Agreement relating to the transfer of property to the Malta Government in 1993 at the end of five years of intensive discussions.
He also originated and implemented the Maritime Museum, which he considered as one of his most satisfying successes.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici was appointed as the Fifth President of the Republic of Malta by the Maltese Parliament on April 4, 1994. He was a member of the National Order of Merit as Companion of Honour.
He was conferred a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Sorbonne, Paris, for his contribution to education, culture and democratic values in December 1996. He was also honoured by the Premio Vicente Azzopardi in January 2001 by the Spanish Ambassador in recognition of his efforts to promote the Spanish language in the State Schools of Malta.
Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici is a prolific writer and is admired for his eloquence and discourse. He was asked to write the introduction to a host of works varying from history to literature books and reviews.
He contributed largely to editorials of the daily newspaper In-Nazzjon Tagħna and had a popular column in the Sunday tabloid Il-Mument. He was also the leader of the Malta Letterarja from 1952 to 1962 and Il-Poplu in 1966. He was a regular contributor of Il-Ġensillum.
He sent to print hundreds of journalistic articles and selected a number for two series entitled Il-Linja t-Tajba and Biex il-Futur Reġa’ Beda.
He published his detailed autobiography in beautifully written Maltese under the name of Konvinzjoni u Esperjenzain 2015.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici is, above all, a truly charismatic lecturer at the University of Malta and a main exponent of Maltese culture besides being a protagonist in the top achievements of the Maltese people in the second half of the twentieth century.
He was also instrumental in the setting up of the International Maritime Law Institute at Tal-Qroqq, Msida, in the grounds of the Alma Mater, thanks to the excellent relations and formidable collaboration between him and Professur David Attard.
Incidentally, Dr Mifsud Bonnici was a teacher in Comparative Law at the same Institute and later published a monograph under the title An Introduction to Comparative Law, which was praised in foreign reviews.
He edited two books as part of a series entitled Historic Maltese Legal Materials under my own direction, the first containing Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici’s notes of lectures which Professor Giovanni Caruana Galizia had delivered when his father was a law student.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici is one of Malta’s Statesmen who came to know personalities of world stature, including Heads of States like Jimmy Carter of the United States of America, Oscar Luigi Scalfaro of Italy and Alberto Soares of Portugal, but also men who changed the destiny of humanity such as Pope John Paul II, Lech Wales, Nelson Mandela and Yasser Arafat.
Dr Mifsud Bonnici is recognised as one of the Presidents of the Republic of Malta who kept equidistant and impartial from politics once he terminated his term of office as Malta’s Head of State.
He married Gemma Bianco on May 3, 1959 and had three children who all became lawyers: Carmelo, Anton and Jeanne-Pia.
Raymond Mangion is Head of Department, Legal History and Legal Methodology, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta.