Landmarks in Maltese Constitutional History 1849-1974

In a few words - alas, too few to do justice to this subject – the author commemorates, as this beautiful medal is also intended to do, an event which is undoubtedly the greatest one in Malta's modern history: the achievement of independence. In doing so, he begs forgiveness if he seems to overindulge in the use of the first person singular. But, to some extent this is unavoidable given that the events running up to Independence he had the good fortune of being right at the forefront and literally in the thick of it all.peer-reviewe

Doctors and would-be doctors in the law reports

This paper is the St. Luke's Day Oration, delivered by His Honour the Chief Justice to the Malta Branch of the British Medical Association on the 18th October 1973 at the Medical School of the University. Civil cases in which doctors had been involved and which figure out in Maltese Law Reports are described. A case in point shows how a father, sued a doctor for damages arising out of the fact that the son, who was under the professional care of the doctor, allegedly through the doctor's negligence, lost his foot and suffered permanent debilitation. Warrants of seizure and of impediment of departure, as well as a garnishee order, were also issued against the doctor. It was on the basis of the experts' findings themselves that both Courts reached the clear conclusion that there had been negligence on the part of the doctor. Several other cases are reported, one of which for instance involves the doctor`s prescription. The focus here is on the dark side of things that brings out more fully the brighter side, whereby the medical profession in Malta has indeed a very bright record.peer-reviewe

The treatment of young offenders in Malta : proposals for reform

When the Criminal Code of Malta was promulgated just over a century ago it was hailed as a very enlightened code of laws and so it was indeed. Suffice it to remark that it made no provision for any form of corporal punishment. When the position regarding corporal punishment in Malta in 1854 is compared with the corresponding position in England up to very recently it will be readily admitted that Malta was in this respect well ahead of the times. But although the criminological outlook of the code promised fair for the times, it is a fact that in certain respects, especially with regard to the treatment of young offenders, the present state of our law leaves room for a measure of improvement in the light of new developments in the field of criminal science.peer-reviewe

Les procédures pénales et leur publicité dans la presse

Le probleme de la publicite extensive et souvent excessive que l'on accorde de nos jours aux procedures penales dans la presse se trouva place au premier rang clans le monde de langue anglaise en 1949 lors de la cause celebre americaine d'Alger Hiss. Le premier proces d'Alger Hiss se termina par un desaccord parmi les jures et l'affaire dut etre jugee a nouveau. On sait tres bien que pendant le premier proces aussi bien qu'apres l 'acquittement du jury un deluge de commentaires eclata clans la presse americaine. De crainte que les jures du second proces ne fussent influences par tous ces commentaires, l'avocat de l'iriculpe fit un recours en vue de renvoyer l'affaire devant le tribunal d 'un autre district. Cette requete fut appuyee par un affidavit qui fit specifiquement mention non seulement des attaques dirigees dans les journaux contre certains temoins a decharge ainsi que contre le juge et contre certains jures, mais signala en outre 'la publication pendant les debats de pretendues preuves qui ne furent pas soumises au jury et qui, dans certains cas, furent de fait repoussees par le juge'. Le ministere public riposta en affirmant, par un autre affidavit, qu' une analyse de tous les articles parus dans les journaux pendant les debats montrait que 68% etaient entierement bases sur des faits, 8% en faveur de Hiss, 6% contre Chambers (l'agent communiste a qui, disait-on, Hiss aurait remis des documents secrets) et 17% en faveur ou contre le juge.peer-reviewe

Doctors and would-be doctors in the law reports

Doctors (and, following the order in the title of this lecture, I shall come to. would-be doctors later) figure in our law reports in several guises - as plaintiffs or defendants in civil actions, as persons charged in criminal actions, as witnesses and, lastly and more commonly, as experts. For the purposes of this lecture, I am confining my interest to doctors qua doctors as otherwise there are, of course, numerous instances of doctors figuring in the law reports as ordinary litigants. Obviously there is nothing to preclude doctors from joining in this national pastime which is court litigation and, as I said, there are several reported cases of doctors, even some of the most reputable ones, suing or being sued for damages in connection with traffic accidents, whereas in relation to traffic accidents I am obviously more concerned with doctors as experts assessing, for instance, (and this is by no means easy) the percentage of an injured person's permanent incapacity for the purposes of an action for damages.peer-reviewe

Computing classical modular forms

We discuss practical and some theoretical aspects of computing a database of classical modular forms in the L-functions and Modular Forms Database (LMFDB).Comment: 62 pages; minor edit

Lir-rivista tagħna “Il-Malti”

Ġabra ta’ poeżiji u proża li tinkludi: Atomi u nies ta’ E. Agius – Tifkiriet ta’ tfuliti ta’ Karmenu Vassallo – Lil ħija Salvu ta’ J. C. Friggieri – ....U l-art titkellem ta’ Dun Frans Camilleri – Lil Mary Meylak ta’ John Sciberras – Siltiet minn ‘Il-Ħabs Tiegħi’ ta’ Silvio Pellico ta’ Val. V. Barbara – Qalb sinċiera ma teqdiemx ta’ Ġużeppina Attard Montalto – Oqbra minsija ta’ Ninu Cremona – Għajnejn saħħara ta’ Ġ. Ellul Mercer – Lir-rivista tagħna “Il-Malti” ta’ Mario Agius.N/

Railway bridge structural health monitoring and fault detection: state-of-the-art methods and future challenges

Railway importance in the transportation industry is increasing continuously, due to the growing demand of both passenger travel and transportation of goods. However, more than 35% of the 300,000 railway bridges across Europe are over 100-years old, and their reliability directly impacts the reliability of the railway network. This increased demand may lead to higher risk associated with their unexpected failures, resulting safety hazards to passengers and increased whole life cycle cost of the asset. Consequently, one of the most important aspects of evaluation of the reliability of the overall railway transport system is bridge structural health monitoring, which can monitor the health state of the bridge by allowing an early detection of failures. Therefore, a fast, safe and cost-effective recovery of the optimal health state of the bridge, where the levels of element degradation or failure are maintained efficiently, can be achieved. In this article, after an introduction to the desired features of structural health monitoring, a review of the most commonly adopted bridge fault detection methods is presented. Mainly, the analysis focuses on model-based finite element updating strategies, non-model-based (data-driven) fault detection methods, such as artificial neural network, and Bayesian belief network–based structural health monitoring methods. A comparative study, which aims to discuss and compare the performance of the reviewed types of structural health monitoring methods, is then presented by analysing a short-span steel structure of a railway bridge. Opportunities and future challenges of the fault detection methods of railway bridges are highlighted