On November 22, 1975, 23 students graduated as doctors of law from the University of Malta. The previous year, Malta had become a republic, but the official scroll handed to each of the 23 graduates recording the formal conferment of the degree of Doctor Legum and signed by the rector, Edwin Borg Costanzi, and the registrar, Lorenzo Ellul, still bore the heading Regia Universitas Studiorum Melitensis.
Of these 23 graduates, one became a president of Malta, another one a prime minister; two others served as government ministers; one ended up as a European Commissioner; two were appointed chief justices, another two served as judges of the Superior Courts, and one as a magistrate; and another served for many years as Malta’s ambassador to various European countries.
Fifty years later, on November 29, 16 of that cohort, many of them accompanied by their spouses, met again to celebrate the occasion with a lunch at Chukkas Restaurant in Mosta. Lunch was preceded by a thanksgiving mass celebrated by Fr Oliver Borg Olivier, SJ, where those present also remembered their colleagues who have departed this life – Walter Caruana, Anthony Grech Trapani (1974, notary pubic) and John Laferla – as well as departed spouses of those present.
Those in attendance were Joe Borg, Vanni Bruno, Emmanuel Buttigieg, Noel Buttigieg Scicluna, André Camilleri, Herbert Cassar, Vincent De Gaetano, Austin Gatt, Lawrence Gonzi, Alfred Grech, Jeanette Laferla Saliba, Michael Mallia, Joe Mifsud, Carol Peralta, Paul Pullicino and David Scicluna. Also present was Joseph Henry Saydon, who in 1974 graduated with those present as a notary public.
Unavoidably absent were George Abela, Mario Rosario Bonello, Silvio Camilleri, Renato Cefai and Louis Galea.