The Environment and Planning Review Tribunal held on 23 July 2026 that a Valletta joinery in use since the 1950s is not development, and that an NGO that never objected cannot appeal. It matters to objectors and to owners of long-standing uses.
The Court of Appeal held on 23 July 2026 that the First Hall should have stayed port workers' EU-law challenge to the 2017 licence rules while the Commission's case against Malta is pending, not declined to examine it.
The Court of Criminal Appeal dismissed a public officer's appeal against a 39-month prison term for misappropriation, fraud and forgery. Relevant to anyone defending a client who repaid the money only after proceedings began.
The Court of Appeal orders a flat owner to close windows and a balcony over the yards below and remove compressors and pipes: no consent in a public deed, no thirty years, a standard servitudes clause is no title, and article 2140's ten-year prescription cannot found a servitude.
Where a child spends half his time with each parent, the Court of Appeal held that neither pays the other maintenance: each meets the child's needs in their own time, and health, education and activities are shared equally.
The Constitutional Court finds no breach of article 8 in the return decision and removal order against an Albanian national raised in Malta from childhood, because the offence was grave, the ties to Malta were weaker than the First Hall found, and the entry ban runs for five years only.
The Court of Criminal Appeal annulled a cigarette-smuggling conviction because the Court of Magistrates found the accused guilty of Criminal Code charges without citing the Criminal Code articles, and sent the case back for a fresh judgment.
The Court of Appeal holds that a marina booking was concluded when the client signed and paid, so a later change of mind gives no right to a refund under article 1147. It matters to anyone contracting for services by email.
After a retrial, the Court of Appeal holds that a son-in-law who received property by simulated sale owes no collation, because he is neither descendant nor heir and article 920 deems gifts to an heir's spouse exempt, while the daughter must collate her own share.
The Court of Criminal Appeal held that a man who signed for two controlled-delivery parcels of cannabis had the drugs within his sphere of control although the police had swapped them for dummies, and added a possession conviction to his importation sentence.
The Family Court gave the mother exclusive custody of three minors, made permanent a 2019 decree stripping the deported father of parental authority, and fixed €200 a month per child: the duty to maintain does not depend on the parent's job.
The First Hall, constitutional jurisdiction, holds that a €419,997 FIAU administrative penalty is a criminal charge and that the FIAU is neither a court nor impartial, yet finds no breach of article 39 or article 6 because article 13A of Chapter 373 gives a full appeal on fact and law.