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Mark A. Sammut Sassi (born on 2 October 1973) is a Maltese author.

Childhood and early life

Son of author Frans Sammut and Catherine née Cachia, Mark A. Sammut Sassi was born in 1973 in Malta. He studied at St. Monica School, Stella Maris College, the now-defunct Liċeo Vassalli, and the GF Abela Lyceum. He studied at the University of Malta (law and translation studies), at the University of London (history of law and legal theory), at the London School of Economics (management and historical sociology) and at Oxford University (historical studies).

Political and civic activity

Mark A. Sammut with the President of Latvia, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, in 2004.

Sammut Sassi was a local councillor in his native Ħaż-Żebbuġ (1993–1996), a member of the State Board for Co-operative Societies (1997–1998), Secretary of the Notarial Council of Malta (2000–2003), Honorary Consul of Latvia (2001–2006), and President of the Maltese Language Association of the University of Malta (2007–2009).

Sammut Sassi has been politically active since 1993; first within the Maltese Labour Party (Partit Laburista (Malta)). He played a prominent role in the 2003 electoral campaign.

Mark A. Sammut Sassi (left) with the then President of Malta Eddie Fenech Adami (right) and former Judge of the European Court of Human Rights and former President of the Constitutional Court of Malta Professor Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici (centre), in December 2008.

In 2016, Sammut Sassi resigned from the Labour Party and joined the Nationalist Party (Partit Nazzjonalista (Malta)).

On 3 November, 2016, Sammut Sassi published L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa. Il-Panama Papers u l-Poter ['The Best in Europe. The Panama Papers and Power'], a book in which he criticised the neoliberal policies of Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat and his defence of Minister Konrad Mizzi and his own chief of staff Keith Schembri who had opened secret companies in Panama. In 2021, during a public inquiry on the murder of journalista Daphne Caruana Galizia, Sammut Sassi testified that Joseph Muscat had tasked his father Frans Sammut with opening and contributing to a blog aimed at attacking Caruana Galizia. Sammut Sassi is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and the Society for Advanced Legal Studies, as well as a member of the European Society for Comparative Legal History, the Malta Historical Society, and others. Sammut Sassi discovered that Mikiel Anton Vassalli was not married.

Publications

Books

• A Short History of Latvia/L-Istorja tal-Latvja fil-Qosor (Malta, 2004)
• Il-liġi, il-morali, u r-raġuni: konverżazzjonijiet bejn il-Professur Giuseppe Mifsud Bonnici, Prim Imħallef Emeritu u Dr. Mark A. Sammut, with a Postface by Professor Peter Serracino Inglott (Malta, iusmelitae, 2008)
• The Mediterranean Region: Different Perspectives, Common Objectives (contributor) (Italy, Center for High Defense Studies, 2010)
• The Law of Consular Relations (UK, XPL Law, 2010)
• Malta at the European Court of Human Rights 1987-2012 (editor and contributor with former European Court of Human Rights Judge Giovanni Bonello, Professor Kevin Aquilina, and others) (Malta, iusmelitae, 2012)
• L-Aqwa fl-Ewropa. Il-Panama Papers u l-Poter (Malta, 2016)
• Essays in Maltese Legal History and Comparative Law (UK, OLP, 2017)
• L-Aqwa Żmien Għalihom. Erba’ Snin ta’ Skandli (Malta, 2017)
• Flying at the Fall of Dusk: Commentaries on Malta in the Muscat Years (Malta, 2021)

Other publications

Sammut Sassi has published a number of essays, including ‘An enlightened shadow? Elements of the intellectual climate at the time of the codification of the Criminal Law of Malta’ in Comparative Legal History Volume 9, 2021 - Issue 2 (UK, Taylor & Francis, 2021). Sammut Sassi is a regular contributor to the Maltese newspapers The Malta Independent on Sunday and In-Nazzjon.