DR.LAWRENCE QUINTANO was born on the 29th July, 1949. He was educated at the Lyceum and then he started his first course at the University of Malta where he graduated B.A.(Hons) in English in 1970. Three years later he obtained his M.A. degree in English with a thesis on Shakespeare’s final plays.  After teaching English Language and English Literature in State schools for seven years, he joined the civil service as an Administrative Officer in 1977. He served as an assessor in the Business section of the Inland Revenue Department. Then in 1979 he registered for the Law Course and he graduated LL.D. in 1983 magna cum laude. His doctoral thesis dealt with the right to a fair trial under Article 6 of the European Convention on Human Rights.

After graduating as Doctor of Laws he worked at the Attorney General’s Office where he advised a number of departments amongst them: the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Department of Social Welfare, the Director of Contracts, the Accountant General, and the Education Department. He also appeared before the Constitutional Court in connection with allegations of breaches of the Constitution or of the European Convention on Human Rights. He was  involved in legal drafting, the vetting of multilateral and bilateral treaties and in the negotiation of treaties.

He represented the Government of Malta both before the European Commission of Human Rights and the European Court of Human Rights.  He defended Malta’s reports before the United Nations Committee on Human Rights, the Committee against Torture and the Committee for the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination.

He was particularly active in the Council of Europe where he served on the Committee of Experts entrusted with the preparation of the Convention on Civil Liability for damage to the Environment, in the Convention on Children’s Rights and in the Framework Convention on the Rights of Minorities.   Moreover, he was the Chairman of an Experts’ Committee entrusted with the preparation of drafting an advice to the Committee of Ministers about the role of the Advisory Committee set up under the Framework Convention and to draft the regulations for the appointment of members and the functions of the Advisory Committee.  Moreover, he represented Malta while an Additional Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights was being drafted.

He was also a member of the Committee of Advisers on Public International Law and of the Committee on Human Rights. He keeps close contact with foreign experts in the field of access to official documents.

He is a Senior Lecturer in Civil Law at the University of Malta where he has been teaching the subject since 1987. He has written many articles about human rights’ cases decided by the European Court, current trends in Family Law, annulment of marriages, the Hague Convention on Child Abduction, the Council of Europe Convention on Custody, Mediation, interim injunctions before the International Court of Justice, numerous short stories and a novel.

In  February 2003 he was appointed Magistrate at the Maltese Law Courts he has been presiding the Drugs’ Court since then. He also deals with criminal cases carrying a maximum penalty of ten years in prison.