Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici

Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici (17 July 1930 – 21 February 2019)[1] was a Maltese judge and philosopher, Chief Justice of Malta between 1990 and 1995. He mostly specialised in the philosophy of law.[2]

Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici
Bonnici in December 2008
Born(1930-07-17)July 17, 1930
Cospicua, Malta
DiedFebruary 21, 2019(2019-02-21) (aged 88)
Alma materUniversity of Malta
OccupationAcademic, jurist

Life

Mifsud Bonnici was born in Cospicua, Malta, on July 17, 1930. He began his studies at the University of Malta from where, in 1958, he became Doctor of Law. Before that, in 1955, he was Malta’s chess champion. After graduating as a lawyer, he continued his studies in Rome at the Gregorio del Vecchio Institute of the Sapienza University of Rome. He began teaching philosophy of law at the University of Malta in 1966, and continued teaching for three decades, right up to his retirement in 1995. He was appointed Professor of the Philosophy of Law in 1988.

Also in 1988 Mifsud Bonnici was appointed Judge of the Maltese Superior Courts. Two years later, in 1990, he was made Chief Justice, and President of the Courts of Appeal and President of the Constitutional Court, offices he held up till his retirement in 1995. Meantime, in 1992, he served as Judge of the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, a service he maintained until 1998. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Institute for Advanced Legal Studies of London, England.

Works

Philosophically, Mifsud Bonnici is an adherent of the Aristotelian-Thomistic school of Scholasticism. Most of his published studies deal with legal matters, including fundamental human rights and freedoms. Rather technical in nature, these publications do not interest philosophy directly.

Of a different nature is his 178-page book, co-authored with Mark A. Sammut, Il-Ligi, il-Morali u r-Raguni (Law, Morality and Reason), published in 2008 (Ius Melitæ). The composition is basically a sort of dialogue between the two authors (alternatively, it is an interview with Mifsud Bonnici). It is divided in into five main parts dealing with a number of themes, from purely legal technicalities to philosophical topics. Though the style is quite loose and colloquial – with the discussion sometimes drifting into mere side observations – philosophical arguments are proposed for a number of subjects, such as bioethics, religion, matrimony (including same-sex marriage, freedom of expression, the administration of justice, and the like.

gollark: There actually are worries about development of this stuff slowing down.
gollark: <@!336962240848855040> As far as I know 3nm does not actually exist yet, and there are a bunch of possible sizes you could use.
gollark: > The 22 nm node may be the first time where the gate length is not necessarily smaller than the technology node designation. For example, a 25 nm gate length would be typical for the 22 nm node.
gollark: As far as I know it *used* to actually be a measure of something, but they hit issues around... 22nm or something, don't really know... and despite said measure not changing very much the processes kept getting better, so they just reduced them.
gollark: I mean, generally if the number goes down the density of the transistors goes up, but it's not an actual measurement of anything.

See also

References
  1. "Former Chief Justice Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici passes away at 88". MaltaToday.com.mt. Retrieved 25 February 2019.
  2. Mark Montebello, Il-Ktieb tal-Filosofija f’Malta (A Source Book of Philosophy in Malta), PIN Publications, Malta, 2001, Vol. II, p. 37.
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