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The supremacy of our Constitution is the keystone upon which the entire Constitutional structure rests. Our courts are empowered to strike down laws which are found to be inconsistent with the Constitution and in particular those laws which breach the fundamental rights and freedoms of the individual set forth in our Constitution.
The European Court of Human Rights and the Constitutional Court of Malta have in a number of cases ruled that the infliction of an administrative penalty in a case where it retained its criminal character could only be imposed by an independent and impartial court. Our courts have also made it amply clear that at all stages of proceedings considered to be criminal, applicants had a right of access to a court, namely one presided over by a magistrate or a judge.