On the appointment of judges - Tonio Azzopardi

With so many new judges about to be appointed to serve in the national courts of Malta as well as in the regional courts under the auspices of the Council of Europe and the European Union, it is pertinent to bring to the attention of the authorities and the public in general the judgment delivered this month by the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg on March 12, 2019 in the case of Guðmundur Andri Ástráðsson v. Iceland (Application no. 26374/18). 

Naturally, this judgment will also have consequences for other Member States besides Iceland. The judgment is important for the reason that it lays down certain requirements for the proper appointment of judges. The European Court of Human Rights in its majority judgment supported by five out of seven judges held that:

“In the light of all of these elements, the Court cannot but conclude that the process by which A.E. was appointed a judge of the Court of Appeal, taking account of the nature of the procedural violations of domestic law as confirmed by the Supreme Court of Iceland, amounted to a flagrant breach of the applicable rules at the material time.

“Indeed, the Court finds that the process was one in which the...