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Maltese Laws |
To make provision in respect of the construction and application of Acts of Parliament and other instruments having the force of law and in respect of the language used therein.
4th February, 1975
ACT VII of 1975, as amended by Acts XLIX of 1981, XXXV of 1990, I of
2001, IX of 2003, XIII of 2007, and I and XIII of 2009.
"Act" means an Act of Parliament and any other Act passed by the Legislature of Ma lta and i n clud es any code, ord i
nance, p r oclamati on, or der, ru le, reg u latio n, by e-law, n o tice or o t her i n str u men t hav i ng th e fo rce of l a w
in Malt a ot her th an an instr u ment to which the Act of the Parliament of the U n ited K i ngd om of G r eat Br itai n and N
o rthern Ireland entit led the Interpretation Act, 1889, applies;
"pass", and any derivative thereof, used in relation to the word
Act, includes the making of any instrument having the force of law.
(2) No provision of this Act limiting its application, or that of any of its provisions, to certain Acts shall be construed as
implying t h at ot her Acts, or an y pro v i s io n t h ereof o r any exp r essio n occurring therein, are to be interpreted, construed
or applied in a manner different from that provided in this Act.
Short title. Interpretation.
"Act of Parliament" means any law made by Parliament; "amend" includes repeal, add to and vary;
"Constitution" means the Constitution of Malta; "contravene" includes fail to comply with;
"d ocu ment" means an y matter expressed or described on any substance by means of letters, figures or marks, or by more
than one of those means, intended to be used or which may be used for the purpose of recording that matter;
"enactment" means a written law or any provision thereof; "function" includes power and duty;
"Gazette" means the Malta Governm en t Gazette o r any other official journal substituted therefor and published by order
of the Government;
"Government" means the Government of Malta;
"House" means the House of Representatives of Malta;
Definitions. Amended by: XLIX. 1981.6; I. 2001. 2; XIII. 2009.2.
"law" includes any instrument having the force of law and any un wri t t e n r u l e of l a w, an d "l awfu l"
an d "l awfu ll y" shall b e construed accordingly;
"name" used in relation to an individual includes surname; "Parliament" means the Parliament of Malta;
"repeal" used in relation to a law includes rescind, revoke, cancel and replace;
"words" includes figures and symbols;
"writi ng" i n cludes p r in ting , l ith ograp hy, ty pewri ting , photography and any other mode of representing or
reproducing words in a visible form.
(2) In this Act, and in every Act passed either before or after the commencement of this Act, "Malta" means the Island
of Malta, the Island of Gozo and other islands of the Maltese Archipelago, including the territorial waters thereof.
(3) A reference in an enactment, whether passed before or after the commencement of this Act, to a part, article or schedule shall,
unless the contrary intention appears, be read as a reference to a part, article or schedule of that enactment; and references in
any such enactment to a subarticle, paragraph or sub-paragraph shall, unless the contrary intention appears, be read as a reference
to a subarticle, paragraph or sub-paragraph of the article, subarticles or paragraph, as the case may be, in which the reference
occurs.
(4) | (a) | Any reference in any law to ''international law'' shall be construed as a reference to int e rn ational law interpreted where required in accordance with such international instruments, if any, to which Malta may from time to time be a party. |
(b) | Any reference in any law to Malta’s international obligations shall be construed as a reference to the obligations of Malta assumed under international law. | |
(c) | The terms ''crimes against humanity'', ''crimes against international law'' and ''political offence'' shall have the same meaning assigned to them under customary international law in general and in international instruments to which Malta may be a party in particular. | |
(d) | The authentic text of international instruments to which Malta may be a party shall be that which the Minister may cause to be published on an internet site in exercise of the powers conferred by article 11(a) of the Statute Law Revision Act, 1980 and the text shall be consolidated with subsequent amendments, |
provided that a notice be published in the Gazette
giving the address of the website wherein the said
treaties or other international instruments are published.
accordance with the European Union Act, publication of the legal instruments on the Official Journal, judicial notice of which is authorised according to
article 5(2) of the said European Union Act, and the official websites of the European Union shall suffice for the requirements
of publication and it will not be necessary for the Minister to publish a notice to this effect with regard to all past, present
or future legal instruments of the Union.
Cap. 460.
(a) the definition of any word or expression shall extend to all grammatical variations and to cognate expressions
of the word or expression so defined;
(b) words importing the masculine gender shall include females;
(c) words in the singular shall include the plural, and words in the plural shall include the singular;
(d) the expression "person" shall include a body or other association of persons whether granted legal
personality, in accordance with the provisions of the Second Schedule to the Civil Code, or not.
Grammatical variations, gender, number, etc. Amended by:
XIII. 2007.16.
Cap. 16.
the time at which the Act comes into operation.
(2) Where an Act of Parliament passed after the commencement of this Act, or an order, warrant, scheme,
ru le, regulation, bye-law, notice or other instrument made, granted or issued after the commencement of this Act under a power
conferred by any Act, whether passed before or after the commencement of this Act, is expressed to come into operation on a particular
day, the same shall be construed as coming into operation immediately on the expiration of the previous day.
Commencement.
(a) where such Act confers a power or imposes a duty, then, unless the contrary intention appears, the power may be exercised and
the duty shall be performed from time to time as occasion requires;
(b) where such Act confers a power or imposes a duty on the holder of an office, as such, then, unless the contrary intention
appears, the power may be exercised and the duty shall be performed by the holder for the time being of that
office;
Construction of provisions as to exercise of powers and duties. Amended by: XXXV.1990.2;
I. 2009.51.
(c) where such Act confers a power on the holder of an office, and such power relates to any business of the Government, or is
exercisable as part of the functions of a department of Government for which responsibility has been assigned
to a Minister under the Constitution, such power shall be exercisable by the holder of that office, and except to the extent
that the holder of that office is expressly declared by any law not to be subject to the direction or control of any other person
or authority, the Minister responsible for that business or department of the Government shall have power, even where such power
is expressed to be exercisable in the discretion (whether absolute or otherwise) of the holder of that office, to give such
direction in writing relative to the exercise of that power (including a direction ordering the reversal of a decision) as
such Minister may deem fit:
Provided that on employment, promotion or disciplinary matters in relation to individual employees,
such direction may only be given by the Prime Minister and in such a case the head of department shall inform
the Public Service Commission;
(d) where such Act confers a power to make any rules, regulations or bye-laws, the power shall, unless the contrary intention
appears, be construed as including a power, exercisable in the like manner and subject to the like consent and conditions,
if any, to rescind, revoke, amend, or vary the rules, regulations or bye- laws, and such power shall be exercisable without
prejudice to the making of new rules, regulations or bye-laws.
Exercise of statutory powers between the passing and commencement of an Act.
Construction of subsidiary legislation.
appears , ha ve the sa me re spective mea n ings as in the Act conferring the power.
Provided that no person shall be made or shall become liable to any punishment in respect of anything done or omitted to be done before the commencement of the subsidiary law.
Subsidiary legislation may be retrospective.
(2) In reckoning for the purposes of subarticle (1) any period of twenty-eight days therein referred to, no account shall be taken
of any time during which the House of Represen tati ves is not in session or during which it is adjourned for more than seven days.
(3) Notwithstanding the foregoing provisions of this article, where the principal law conferring the power to make subsidiary
l e g i slatio n m a k e s d i ff erent pro v isio n i n r e spect o f any of the matters aforesaid, those provisions shall apply
to any subsidiary legislation made by virtue of those powers in preference to the provisions of this article in respect of those
matters.
Subsidiary laws to be valid in case of wrong reference to enabling powers.
Subsidiary legislation to be laid on Table of House.
(a) revive anything not in force or existing at the time at which the repeal takes effect;
(b) affect the previous operation of any enactment so
Effect of repeal in future Acts and of amendments in any Act.
repealed or anything duly done or suffered under any law so repealed;
(c) affect any right, privilege or liability acquired or accrued or incurred under any law so repealed;
(d) affect any penalty, forfeiture or punishment incurred in respect of any offence committed against any law so repealed, or any
liability thereto;
(e) affect any investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy in respect of any such right, privilege, obligation, liability,
penalty, forfeiture, or punishment as aforesaid;
and any such investigation, legal proceeding, or remedy may be instituted, continued, or enforced, and any such penalty, forfeiture
or punishment may be imposed, as if the repealing Act had not been passed.
(2) Where an Act, whether passed before or after the commencement of this Act, amends any other Act passed either
before or after the commencement of this Act, or any provision of any such other Act, the Act or provision so amended, as well as
anything done thereunder or by virtue thereof, shall, unless the contrary intention appears, continue to have full effect, and shall
so continue to have effect as amended, and subject to the changes made, by the amending Act.
(3) For the purposes of subarticle (2) "amendment" means and includes any amendment, modification, change, alteration,
addition or delet i on, in what soever fo rm or manner it is m a de and howsoever expressed, and includes also a provision whereby
an Act or a provision thereof is substituted or replaced, or repealed and substituted, or repealed and a different provision made
in place thereof.
Offences by association of persons.
Provided that, except in respect of offences under or against a provision contained in an Act in which a provision similar to that of this article occurs, the provisions of this article shall apply only to offences committed after the commencement of this Act.
Language of laws. 14. Without prejudice to the provisions of any other enactment, an Act of Parliament passed after the commencement of this Act may be enacted, in whole or in part, in the Maltese or in the English language only if the bill for that Act of Parliament, or part of such bill, is presented to the Clerk of the House and published in one
provision authorising the enactment thereof, or any one or more of its parts, as the case may require, in that language only.
Provided that where an act or document is so published in electronic format on CD Rom or is so made available on a publicly accessible website on th e internet, a hard copy thereof is made availa bl e for public in specti on during normal office hours at a government department or office and notice of such availability is also published in the Gazette.
Amendment or repeal of Act in same session.
Electronic publication. Added by: IX. 2003.47.
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