Court of Appeal (26 March 2026): limits of co-ownership confirmed in a dispute over burial in a shared grave.

An interesting judgment delivered by the Rent Regulation Board in 2024 held that a private agreement purporting to create a temporary emphyteusis was null for want of legal form, yet nevertheless gave rise in substance to a protected lease, since the evidence showed that the parties had in reality long operated a lessor-lessee relationship.

Under the COCP (Cap. 12), witness evidence is governed by a presumption of competence, procedural rules on examination, and cross examination and limits on questioning arising from privilege, self-incrimination, and hearsay.

Article 495A allows court-authorised sale of co-owned property when the majority agrees, and the minority is not seriously prejudiced.

PA Circular 1/26, issued today, sets out three operative clarifications aimed at improving regulatory certainty in development control.

Fiduciary duties in Malta are triggered whenever one person wields discretion over another’s patrimony, whatever the label attached. These rules fortify the normative core of contract by converting discretionary power into an enforceable duty of undivided loyalty.

Malta’s Protection of Agricultural Land Regulations, 2025 (L.N. 150 of 2025), published today, are a targeted response to an increasingly familiar reality: cultivable fields broken into small plots, marketed, sold and used for leisure. With the advent of this new law, this might no longer be possible.

A recent Court of Appeal judgment reiterated the fact that ownership of airspace does not automatically permit rooftop development. Developers must first examine the contractual rights of all members of the block.