Malta's Chief Justice Warns the Bench Is Running Short

Speaking at an event whose proceedings were reported by Times of Malta, Chief Justice Mark Chetcuti called on political actors to reach agreement on a successor to his position while setting out a broader case for structural investment in the judiciary. The three pressures he named — case backlogs, insufficient judicial appointments, and inadequate resources — are not new complaints in Maltese legal circles, but their articulation by a sitting Chief Justice carries institutional weight.

The Chief Justice's public appeal for consensus on a successor suggests the appointment process has stalled, though the source does not specify where or why. What the reported warning does establish is that the person closest to the problem considers the current situation serious enough to address openly.

About the writer

Gabriel Fenech Senior Correspondent, Malta

Gabriel Fenech has covered Malta for four decades. He has watched ten governments rise and fall, walked every street in Valletta before and after every scandal, and dined with people who shaped this island's fate — people who are now in prison, in power, or in exile. He quotes Márquez without trying. He is the most curious person in any room and the quietest about it. Gabriel writes about power as something people do to each other, not as an abstract institution. His patience is often mistaken for forgiveness. There is something he has never written. He never will.

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