Malta

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ELI coordination

Organisation/state agency responsible for the ELI implementation

Malta - Ministry for Justice

Responsible person(s)

Donatienne Spiteri

Contact email

donatienne.spiteri@stateadvocate.mt

Status of ELI implementation

Access to the ELI startpage

https://legislation.mt/

Level of implementation

Pillar I and pillar II have been implemented; pillar III has been implemented from a technical point of view, however we are still in the process of converting pdfs to htmls (requiring human verification), which would eventually enable the generation of RDFaS.

URI template structure for pillar 1

Malta legislation is published using the following URI template:

The base ELI URI pattern for Malta is https://legislation.mt/eli/ and follows the following format:

https://legislation.mt/eli/{type}/{year}*/{natural identifier}/{lang}/{format}

The {type} component indicates the type of legislation which can be "cap" or "sl" for Consolidated Primary and Secondary legislation or "act", "ln" or "lcbl" for legal publications representing Acts, Legal Notices or Local Councils’ Bye-Laws respectively.

Legal Publications include the {year} component, which does not apply to Consolidated legislation. This component portrays the year the document was published.

The {natural identifier} is usually a consecutive number applied for the specific type of document, for example the Chapter number or Subsidiary Legislation number in the case of Consolidated legislation. For other legal publications, the natural identifier is usually a unique, consecutive number within the year the document was published.

The {language} component points to the particular language version of the legal document. If language is not specified or the specified language is not available, the system defaults to the Maltese version.

Currently, the only valid value for {format} is pdf, however future enhancements to the system will provide for a variety of other formats such as html and xml.

Implemented metadata elements (only applicable for pillar 2)

number
title
title_short
document_type
date_publication
first_date_entry_in_force
date_no_longer_in_force
in_force
not_in_force
commences
commenced_by
has_basic_act [Malta element]
is_basic_act_of [Malta element]
amends
amended_by
repeals
repealed_by
language
format
realizes/is_realized_by
embodies/is_embodied_by

Examples

Some examples of valid URIs:

https://legislation.mt/eli/cap - list all primary legislation>

https://legislation.mt/eli/cap/9 - view Chapter 9 in default language (Maltese) and default format>

https://legislation.mt/eli/sl/9.24/eng - view English version of Subsidiary Legislation 9.24>

https://legislation.mt/eli/ln/2015/433/mlt/pdf - Maltese, PDF version of Legal Notice 433 of 2015>

https://legislation.mt/eli/lcbl/49/2004/10/eng - English version of L.C.B.L. 49/10/2004>

Additional information

We maximised the value of the ELI implementation by giving as much visibility as possible to our metadata, as follows:

1. The Timeline of the Laws of Malta.

The Timeline is informative, playful, citizen and human-centric. Its aim is to “democtarise” legislation, bringing the laws to legal professionals and citizens alike in a user-friendly, attractive way.

Design: Two-Level Design

The top level of the Timeline shows the respective consolidations (points-in-time)
The bottom level shows the “related legislative acts” with hovering information/tooltips for each of such acts. The tooltip shows the date of publication, the status [in force, partially in force, not in force]; the nature of the act [basic act, amending act, repealing act] and the commencement notice/s related to that act, if applicable.

2. Side-Panel Metadata Display

Two side-panels displaying metadata are available for every Chapter of the Laws of Malta and Act.
The top side-panel shows: the (1) status of the document [in force, partially in force, not in force – which is also colour-coded]; (2) the document type; (3) the Title of the Chapter/instrument; (4) the ELI Link; (5) the keyw>ords; (6) the Language and (7) the Format.
The bottom side-panel displays (for Chapters ans Acts) the following ontology properties: the Status, Date First In Force and Date of Publication; this panel also shows the “Relations”: “Basic Act, “Amended by” etc.

3. Advanced Ontology Search

By going into “Advanced Search” and selecting “Ontology”, the system enables the user to request specific information by making use of a combination of metadata properties, URIs and other values. For instance, a user may request to be provided with “All the Chapters that have been repealed by Act II of 2015” or “All the Chapters that are “Partially in Force””.

Last update: 16/09/2022