MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: John Bonello and Elian Scicluna, 8Point Law
ering proceedings. Specific orders are made when necessary to protect individuals who require protection in the context of ongoing pro - ceedings. Keywords do not feature as a headline in the case law. However, the legal case management system used by the Courts of Justice in Malta offers a function whereby certain judgments deemed of interest to the public are indexed – ie, a set of keywords would be grouped together with a summary of the judgment linked to the record. Since 2000, all case law is fully published in Malta via the portal of the Court Services Agen - cy. Judgments delivered by the Family Court are anonymised. Over time, the Court Servic - es Agency receives requests from individuals whose names appeared in judgments for their records to be removed from the public online database. The “right to be forgotten” pursuant to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation applies to such cases. 2.9 Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) ADR methods in Malta cannot simply be consid - ered in a vacuum. This is mainly because they are viewed as methods to address general civil claims, rather than being specifically established to address family law matters or as an alternative means of resolving financial disputes. Even though court litigation is still one of the strongest forms of dispute settlement in civil matters in Malta, alternative methods do exist. Indeed, arbitration and mediation have become more popular in recent years. In 2004, manda - tory mediation was introduced in most family cases and is used as a method to help parties reach an amicable settlement rather than go through costly and lengthy judicial proceedings.
In terms of the 1996 Arbitration Act, disputes concerning questions of personal civil status (including those relating to personal separation, divorce, or annulment of marriage) are not capa - ble of settlement by arbitration. An exception was introduced in 1999 so that questions relat - ing to the division of property between spouses may be referred to arbitration, subject to the competent court’s approval of the arbitration agreement and of the arbitrator to be appointed. Unfortunately, this procedure is seldom resorted to. The jurisdictional grounds outlined in 1.2 Choice of Jurisdiction are generally applicable to child proceedings, given that Maltese procedural law does not differentiate between classes of claims within the context of marital breakdown. The jurisdiction of the Maltese courts is subject to the provisions of Regulation (EC) 2201/2003 concerning jurisdiction and the recognition and enforcement of judgements in matrimonial mat - ters and the matters of parental responsibility (the “Brussels II bis Regulation”). A Maltese court will only have jurisdiction over divorce proceed - ings pursuant to the Brussels II bis Regulation. 3.2 Living/Contact Arrangements and Child Maintenance Maltese legislation and case law gives utmost importance to the best interests of the child. Care and custody of a child is not simply based on who is the better parent but also on what decisions will be in the child’s best interests. Any arrangement by parents concerning a child requires the approval of the Family Court. Thus, 3. Child Law 3.1 Choice of Jurisdiction
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