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5 NEWS THE role, jurisdiction and practical functioning of the European Court of Human Rights is still not entirely clear and many believe that this Court has the same function as a final court of appeal in civil and criminal matters, according to Chief Justice Emeritus Dr Vincent De Gaetano. "Misconceptions about the Europe- an Court of Human Rights" is in fact the theme chosen by De Gaetano, the former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights for the next in the series of Quarterly Law Seminars or- ganised by the Malta Law Academy Foundation, the educational arm of the Chamber of Advocates. The seminar is scheduled for Wednesday 7 October at 12.00 at the Chamber of Advocates' Conference Hall. "Contrary to common misconcep- tion, the European Court of Human Rights is not a court of appeal and many believe that cases are heard and determined before this Court in much the same way that cases are heard and determined before the national courts which is not the case at all," the Chief Justice Emeritus said. "People, including lawyers, still get confused as to what the rule regarding the exhaustion of domestic remedies (ie that domestic remedies must first be exhausted before one can apply to Strasbourg) really implies. The result is that all too many applications are declared inadmissible at single judge stage. This is what spurred me to choose this topic for my forthcoming Quarterly Law Seminar." Dr David Fabri and Dr Tonio Borg, both senior lecturers with the Facul- ty of Law, said that organising such events nowadays had become a bigger challenge. "But the interest in our seminars is still high and we are prepared to adapt so that we can keep offering these in- formative talks to all members of the Chamber," they said. "In fact, although this talk will be held live inside the Chamber's confer- ence hall, we have also made arrange- ments to stream the talk online via the Zoom platform. We are sure this will increase the reach to a much wider audience." Due to social distancing require- ments, seating inside the conference hall will be limited. The talk will therefore be simultaneously streamed online. Registration for online participation may be done through this link: https:// rb.gy/fn9lwo For physical participa- tion, please email events@avukati.org. Chamber of Advocates resumes quarterly law seminars Chief Justice Emeritus Dr Vincent De Gaetano FROM PAGE 1 Compared to other countries, Malta offered a holistic phased economic plan aimed at mitigating as much as possible economic impact brought about by the pandemic followed then by a robust re- generation economic plan. "At all times as a Government we made sure to stand shoulder to shoul- der with our businesses. Our stance and approach was even lauded by the recent S&P report which black on white said that if we hadn't taken such approach the results would have been catastroph- ic on our economy," Schembri said. "Having said that discussions pursued with all stakeholders and the upcoming budget will continue to assist families and businesses." One possible measure that is being repeatedly put up for disucssion in var- ious fora sees the government issuing another round of vouchers that were distributed to Maltese households at the height of the first wave of the pan- demic, aimed at helping to revitalise somewhat the Maltese tourism industry and the retail sector. Other countries too, including the UK and Germany, are actively considering measures that boost internal tourism to complement sound economic measures aimed at helping to keep businesses afloat during the coming months, which many analysists believe will be worse than the first wave. Tony Zahra, president of the Malta Hotels and Restaurants Association, agreed that for too long, domestic tour- ism had been treated only as a fallback option locally. "In larger countries like Germany, where inbound tourism amounts to around 4% of GDP, the domestic market is enourmous and the size of the coun- tries offers attractive alternative desti- nations," he said. In Malta, he explained, inbound tour- ism amounted tourism amounted to around 25% of GDP. But the small size of the islands were a barrier to prolific domestic tourism, with the exception of Gozo, which enjoyed a strong domestic market share. "Should we promote domestic tourism more? Of course we should," Zahra said. "Necessity is the mother of investion and, whereas domestic tourism had previously been seen as a fallback op- tion, today it could prove to be a very good source of income for many ailing businesses." Domestic tourism, previously ignored, now seen as viable source of income Tony Zahra 1.10.2020

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