Replying to AB’s post “Broadly speaking …”

Congratulations. You can give yourself a pat on the back. You’ve just won a courtroom argument. You’ve given yourself the classic lawyer’s slip by clinging on to an exit clause for our dear Franco: he is not a member of the party any longer, so anything he wrote about members of the party in office then does not apply to him now.

Whether he did actually resign, whether his resignation was accepted, whether he retracted his resignation … all this is not relevant. For all intents and purposes, he stopped being a member of the PN party. That is your argument. And that’s fine.

Bravo. Well done. Well done to Franco, too.

Just bear in mind that Franco (I can’t get myself to call him Hon. Franco – to my mind, he has lost all honour that the Repbulic had bestowed on him in 2008) was elected by voters supporting the PN Party. He was elected as part of the PN team.

It is the trust of these voters that bind him to the PN Party and the PN team, and not some legal jargon that lawyers play with to shirk their responsibilities to their voters and their voters’ party. Franco’s votes are the party’s votes. The moment he stopped being a member of the PN Party, he automatically devested himself of the power of those PN votes.

Technically and legally, he still holds that power. But by using it against the same party that gave him that power to bring down the party from government, Franco is breaking the trust of the voters that elected him as a member of the PN Party.

You and Franco, being of the same mind, may both walk out of the courtroom all proud and smiling. You may even impress the judge with your brilliant rhetoric. Just don’t expect any parties waiting for you outside the court house.

@HP Baxxter and john

Don’t lawyers graduate as BA first? And isn’t their degree denoted as LL.D? That would make their doctorate a second degree, and the thesis, therefore, not an undergraduate one.

Regarding the LL.M, it could be that the Master’s course they followed is a taught one. Besides, there’s nothing to stop someone with a BA and a doctorate in an area to work for a master’s in a different “branch” of the same discipline, is there?

Dentists get a B.Ch.D – which is probably Latin for “baccalaureate in dental surgery”, but they share their first few semesters with the MDs, so they’re entitled to bask in their glory *Ahem*.

PLUS they still have to get good A level grades to get in. Granted, it’s not nearly as impressive as getting a good Form 2 mid-yearly report, but still… not everyone is a high achiever.

@AB, Franco’s resignation was not accepted, therefore he is still forms part of the PN (you might have missed the fact that he was in Parliament on the government’s backbench yesterday), so not one of your explanations makes sense.

That should be 1996, the date of Joseph’s dissertation on a similar topic.

Because this is Malta where everyone is pumped up with self-importance.

We take after Schettinoland in this matter.

Look at the dentists, who also call themselves ‘dr’. Their degree is ‘bachelor’ of something or other.

I know perfectly well that what Franco wrote is known as a doctoral thesis in Malta, even though it is a dissertation written by an undergraduate. And that’s a fact.

Because they’re wankers who love to hold on to Italianate tradition to make themselves look important.

John is right. Our lawyers DO NOT write a doctoral thesis. A doctoral thesis is a compendium of peer-reviewed publications resulting from doctoral research. What is known in Maltese as “Il-Pi Ejc Di”.

The only people who should be calling themselves Dr are PhD holders and medical doctors.

Why do lawyers refer to themselves as ‘dr’, then?

In fact it is a dissertation written by an undergraduate.

When Maltese lawyers go abroad to specialise and do postgraduate studies, what do they get? An LLM. A Master’s degree – a level beneath that of a doctorate, note.

Insurance?