6 Professors who Taught International Law within the Faculty of Laws, University of Malta Raymond Mangion * Member of the Department of Public Law, Faculty of Laws, University of Malta Introduction I am honoured and pleased to pay homage to an eminent mentor, bosom colleague, wise counsellor and unrivalled expert in international law - Professor David]. Attard. I accepted cordially and gladly the courteous invitation to join the fellowship of world legal and judicial luminaries in this Liber Amicorum by submitting an article consisting of short tributes to the Professors of Law who taught international law within the groves of Maltese Academe. The overall number of professors who occupied the seat in the period were the following sages: Professors Ferdinanda Caruana Dingli, 1840-1870; Nicolo Crescimanno, 1870-1881; William Rapinet, 1881-1884; Giovanni Caruana, 1886- 1895, Salvatore Castaldi, 1895-1904; Enrico Carlo Vassallo, 1904-1937; William Buhagiar, 1937-1947; and Edwin Busuttil, 1947-1987. The professors of international law from 1840 to 194 7 were so appointed and entitled when the relevant chair was not autonomous because it was constituted jointly with constitutional law. The incumbent from 1948 to 1987 was first a lecturer of international law as a reconstituted separate course of study at the tertiary level but without the former rank, and then as professor of international law when the subject was incorporated within a new chair under the designation of public law. In 1987, Professor David]. Attard was appointed as the first professor of the chair after it was reconstituted for the third time but as a department devoted exclusively to the teaching of international law for the first time in the history of tl1e University of Malta. The majority of the eight dons who lectured in international law at the University of Malta has long been forgotten or remembered only for their demonstration of astounding wisdom or distinguished standing in others spheres of public life. I hope and pray that my humble contribution to this marvellous festschrift will recall their once undoubted celebrity and contemporaneously reawaken an endless interest in the history of the Faculty of Law at the University of Malta. 1 * * * The Universitas Studiorum, or better the present University of Malta, was founded by Grandmaster Emmanuele Pinto de Fonseca by virtue of a decree signed on 32 Raymond Mangion 22 November 1769.2 It was located within the College of the Company of Jesus in Valletta in pursuance to four Papal Briefs which were issued on 20 October 1769 (Sollecti non quidem and Sedula Romani Pontificus) and 26January 1771 (Dudum nos per alias and Maxima Utilitatis). 3 The Jesuits in Malta had conducted the academic teaching of island's Alma Mater for over 150 years the Collegium Melitense, the precursor of the Universitas Studiorum, which had been established by a public deed of 12 November 1592.4 The Costituzioni peri nuovi studi dell'Universitd or Statutes of the present University of Malta were formulated by the first Rector, the Florentine Servite P. Roberto Raineri Maria Costaguti and were promulgated on 22 May 1771. 5 The Costituzioni established that a full University course lasted eight years of which the first three led to the degree of Master of Arts in subjects common to all faculties while the last five were dedicated to studies in the traditional professions, comprising jurisprudence. 6 The subjects of Civil Law, Canon Law and Philosophy of Law were taught within the Faculty of Law. The Professor of Civil Law lectured on the Statuti of the Order of St. John and the Prammatiche del Paese. 7 Reverend Dr Fra Antonio Micallef was appointed Professor of the Chair of Law. 8 Indeed, the curriculum was very limited and modest, so much so that the University bestowed a Juris Utriusque Doctor (J.U.D.) for well over fifty years. Dr Micallef occupied the Chair until 1809 and was followed by the Reverend Dr Fra Giuseppe Simeone Borg from 1811 to 1835. Half way through the Deanship of Dr Borg, a newly constituted General Council of the University suggested various radical changes to his native Alma Mater which took place only ten years afterwards and sanctioned by the Secretary of State for the Colonies by a dispatch of 29 November 1833.9 Before putting into practice the programme which was intended to place the University of Malta on a modern footing, Royal Commissioners George Cornewall Lewis andJohn Austin sent to the printer a report in terms of which at the end of the academical course of six years, the University granted the Doctor in Laws (LL.D.) after examination by members of the faculty. 10 No one was eligible to exercise the profession without a 'laurea dottorale nelle leggi Canoniche e Civili' 11 and applicants who wished to plead in the courts had to submit 'certificate relative al carattere ed abilitd'. 12 The requirement was re-entrenched in a new Code of Organization and Civil Procedure. 13 In 1838, Dr Ignazio Gavino Bonavita, on the strength of the Royal Commissioners' recommendations, drew up a new Statuto Fondamentale the publication of which on 15 December of the year laid the basis of the future University of the country. 14 The course of laws was structured so to encompass lessons in the Municipal Institutions and in Natural, Common, Civil and Criminal Laws. 15 A Chair 'di diritto delle genti e di diritto pubblico', or better of International and Constitutional Law, was created to mark the introduction of the professorship and teaching of international law, an unprecedented milestone in the annals of the law studies at the University of Malta. 16 The running of the general instruction within the Faculty of Laws was entrusted to two Professors according to a suggestion of the Royal Commissioners who had proposed a reduction in the number of professors owing to the scanty resources of the Maltese people. 17 Prqftssors who Taught International Law within the Faculty qf Laws, University qf Malta 33 Ferdinando Caruana Dingli - Godson of the Last Grandtnaster Professor Dr Ferdinanda Caruana Dingli was the first academic lawyer and advocate to occupy the Chair of International and Constitutional law from the moment the course of law was reorganized pursuant to the Statuto Fondamentale of 1838. Ferdinanda was born in Valletta on 12 January 1798, son of Giuseppe Caruana Dingli and Antonia nee Farrugia. He was baptized on 13January 1798 in the parish of Porto Salvo, Valletta, and was given the names 'Ferdinandus, Gullielmus, Vincentius, Antonius'. He was named after the last Grandmaster of the Order of St. John in Malta - the German Ferdinand Von Hompesch who was his 'promurator' together with his 'patrium' Commendatore FraJoseph (Alexandor) de Foicon. 18 Ferdinanda Caruana Dingli Ferdinanda's father Giuseppe - son of Francesco Caruana and Giovanna Dingli, and the island's Comptroller of Customs - was a close associate, perennial supporter and regular creditor of Grandmaster Von Hompesch. 19 Giuseppe formed part of a small nucleus of Maltese who worked secretly for the return of the Order in Malta from the outset of the French interregnum on the island and the First Commissioner Sir Alexander Ball consequently arrested and exiled him to Messina where he was taken ill and died, leaving behind him Ferdinanda at the age of three years. 20 No doubt, Ferdinanda belonged to a wealthy family in lucre and lore and one of his paternal uncles, Fra Luigi Caruana Dingli, bequeathed in his own handwriting a manuscript on the horrendous plague of 1813 which decimated the Maltese population.21 Ferdinanda studied laws at the University of Malta from where he 34 Raymond Mangion graduated J. U.D. on 3 August 1824.22 He braced himself to a long career both as advocate and academic lawyer and was soon an able defendant with regard to Ferdinand Von Hompesch' list of creditors in an epoch-making civil libel case: Capitano Giuseppe e Gio Batta Monteverde v. Dr Ferdinanda Caruana Dingli et, decided by Dr Agostino Randon sitting in the First Hall of the Civil Court on 19 November 1825 and confirmed by judges Dr John Stoddart and Claudio Vincenzo Bonnici presiding over the highest appellate court of the island. Dr Caruana Dingli pleaded successfully that his father of whom he had been an heir had acted for Grandmaster Von Hompesch with the Monteverde brothers in the capacity of commissionante (commercial agent or mandatory) rather than of mallevatore (surety). 23 From 30 June 1828 to 23 June 1831, Dr Ferdinanda made a sojourn at the Tuscany cities of Pisa, Leghorn and Florence. He also visited the Sicilian port of Trapani for a while. He was in close ties with Orazio Abela and Giuseppe De Sanctis during his stay in Leghorn.24 Orazio Abela hailed from Zejtun and was married to the daughter of the Maltese trader, philanthrope and lover of the Maltese language Giuseppe Pulis Montebello who was married and based with his family in Leghorn. 25 On 27 April 1835, Dr Ferdinanda Caruana Dingli was appointed Prqftssore del Dritto Civile within the Faculty of Law, University of Malta, by a quasi-unanimous decision of all the members of the Council of the University in a re-union of 9 April 1835.26 Dr Caruana Dingli, declared 'abbastanza conosciuto e percio giudicato abile' to fill in the post, was informed of his distinguished appointment by a letter of the then Rector of the University Canon Emmanuele RosignaudY He replaced his predecessor Professor Dr Fra Giuseppe Simeone Borg who, in turn, became Professor Emeritus for his lifelong contribution to the Faculty of Law. 28 On 29 March 1837, Professor Caruana Dingli in the capacity of staff member of the Faculty of Law gave testimony to the Royal Commissioners John Austin and George Cornewall Lewis during their visit to Malta to enquire into the affairs of the island.