Mark A. Sammut

Mark A. Sammut (left) with then President of Malta Eddie Fenech Adami (right) and former President of the Constitutional Court of Malta Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici (centre) in December 2008

Mark A. Sammut is a Maltese author.

Early life

Elder son of Maltese writer Frans Sammut and Catherine née Cachia, Mark A. Sammut was born in 1973 in Malta. He studied at St Monica School, Stella Maris College, Liceo Vassalli, and Liceo GF Abela.

Education

He furthered his studies at the University of Malta (LL.D., M.Jur. (summa cum laude), M.A.) and at the University of London (University College London and London School of Economics and Political Science) (LL.M.).

Political and other involvements

Sammut served as Local Councillor (1993–96),^[1] Member of the Co-Operative Societies Board (1997–98), Secretary of the Notarial Council of Malta (2000–03),^[2] Honorary Consul of Latvia (2001–06),^[3] and President of the Maltese Language Association - University Ghaqda tal-Malti Università (2007–09).

Sammut was politically active for some years (1993-2003), from 1996 onward within the ranks of the Labour Party of Malta. In the electoral campaign of 2003, he had a prominent role on the eve of the elections during one the activities of the Party. He was also heavily attacked by columnist and blogger Daphne Caruana Galizia, but he is one of the few to have won libel proceedings against her, establishing that what she wrote about him was completely false. In 2010, Caruana Galizia threatened to go to the European Court of Human Rights, but never went through with it.^[4]

On November 3, 2016, Sammut launched a book containing scathing criticism of Labour Prime Minister Joseph Muscat's neoliberal policies and defence of Minister Konrad Mizzi and Chief of Staff Keith Schembri, called L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa. Il-Panama Papers u l-Poter.

He is a member of the Royal Historical Society, the European Society for Comparative Legal History, and the Malta Historical Society.

He is also an arbitrator at the Malta Arbitration Centre.

Teaching activity

From 2014, Sammut has started lecturing at the University of Malta on the history of the Maltese Criminal Code.

Sammut with then President of Latvia, Vaira Vike-Freiberga in 2004

Publications

Books

• A Short History of Latvia/L-Istorja tal-Latvja fil-Qosor (Malta, 2004)^[5]
• Il-Liġi, il-Morali, u r-Raġuni (Law, Morality and Reason) with Professor Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, former European Court of Human Rights Judge and former Chief Justice of Malta, (Malta, 2008)^[6]
• (Contribution) The Mediterranean Region: Different Perspectives, Common Objectives (Ministry of Defence, Italy, 2010)
• The Law of Consular Relations^[7] (XPL, UK, 2010), used by Vytautas Magnus University, Kaunas, Lithuania, as recommended reading^[8]
• (Editor and co-author) Malta at the European Court of Human Rights 1987-2012, with Patrick Cuignet and David A. Borg, with contributions by Prof. Kevin Aquilina (Dean of the Faculty of Laws of the University of Malta), Judge Giovanni Bonello, and MEP Dr. Therese Comodini Cachia.^[9][10] (Malta, 2012)
• L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa. Il-Panama Papers u l-Poter (Malta, 2016)^[11]
• Essays on Maltese Legal History and Comparative Law (Whitelocke Publications, Oxford, 2017)^[12][13]
• L-Aqwa Żmien Għalihom. Erba' Snin ta' Skandli (Malta, 2017)^[14]

Other publications

Sammut's translation of Guze' Bonnici's^[15] La Pazza was praised by Professor Charles Briffa in his book on Maltese Literature (Il-Letteratura Maltija: L-Istorja tan-Narrattiva, Malta University Press, 2008).^[16]

Sammut has written on the Codice Municipale di Malta and other topics relating to History and Theory of Law.^[17]

Sammut has translated Machiavelli's The Prince into Maltese.^[18]

References