Cross-Border Litigation In Europe – Malta Chapter

This contribution was published as the Malta chapter in Cross-Border Litigation in Europe (Studies in Private International Law). Hart Publishing.

I. Introduction

Malta joined the European Union ('EU') in 2004. Prior to the transposition of the acquis communautaire, statutory rules on private international law ('PIL') were scarce. The Code of Organisation and Civil Procedure ('COCP') did contain detailed rules on jurisdiction ¹ and there were some miscellaneous conflict-of-laws rules in the Civil Code on succession and matrimonial property. ² Maltese courts tend to refer to the common law of England and Wales (not based on statute) in case of gaps (lacunae) in Maltese private international law. This is due to the fact that Malta was a British colony up to 1964. This had a tremendous impact on the Maltese legal system, which may be defined as a mixed legal system. This is relevant to our debate from two perspectives. First, Malta adopted an adversarial procedural