Law Blog

In Malta, ordinary noise disputes do not always come with a ready-made technical code. Very often, they come in the familiar legal language of nuisance, annoyance, disturbance and fastidju. That is the present reality. The question, therefore, is a practical one: where the law speaks in general terms, how can sound be measured in a […]

Sir Adrian Dingli did not merely borrow from Europe. He borrowed with judgment. He compared, selected and, where he thought Malta needed something firmer, departed. Article 439 of the Civil Code is one of the clearest examples of that method. The rule is short, but formidable: “Ħadd ma jista’ jħaffer fil-fond tiegħu bjar, gwiebi, jew […]

In planning law, the legal error is not that the decision-maker treated policy as decisive. Planning policy is part of the legal framework within which discretion is exercised. The real question is whether the policy was understood and applied according to its own terms. A policy may be misconstrued where its words are read too […]

There is a question in Maltese planning law which, in my view, deserves more attention than it has so far received: to what extent should the identity and information of an owner be shielded when land is placed before the Planning Authority through a development application? The issue is not as simple as saying that […]

Article 72 of Chapter 552 is the natural place to begin, because the answer is found less in theory than in the actual wording chosen by the Maltese legislator. The provision does not say that plans and policies are the only matters to be considered. It does not say that material considerations are merely decorative. […]

Planning fines often feel harsh, especially when daily penalties reach the statutory ceiling. Yet the doctrine emerging from L-Awtorità tal-Ippjanar v. Ferdinand Zammit, Court of Appeal, 28 April 2026, is clear: constitutional law is not normally a practical way to alleviate planning fines once the enforcement process has become final. The first point is procedural. […]