Sir Arturo Mercieca (14 June 1878 – 31 July 1969) was a Maltese judge and served as Chief Justice of Malta between 1924 and 1940.
[5] In 1937, Sir Charles Bonham-Carter, Governor of Malta, "wished to remove [Mercieca], who made no secret of his pro-Italian sympathies, but Ormsby-Gore, the Colonial Secretary declined to accept this recommendation".
[6] On 11 June 1940, the day after Italy declared war on Britain and France, aircraft of the Italian Royal Air Force (Regia Aeronautica) attacked Malta.
Mercieca was compelled to resign the Chief Justiceship to avoid removal[7] and was among those for whom the Governor issued detention orders [8] under the terms of the Malta Defence Regulations.
[7] He published his autobiography, Le Mie Vicende in 1946, translated into English as 'The Unmaking of A Maltese Chief Justice'.