Jurisdiction of the High Court and Constitutional Reform
Abstract
The High Court of the Republic of Albania is part of the justice system in Albania and it is the third instance of adjudication. According to the Constitution of the Republic of Albania of 1998, the High Court enjoys initial and revision jurisdiction and it unifies or changes judicial practice. Initial jurisdiction – it makes first instance adjudication for criminal charges against several special entities such as the President of the Republic of Albania, the Prime Minister and government members, Parliament members, members of the Constitutional Court and members of the High Court. The revision jurisdiction consists in the examination of the means of appeal against final decisions, such as the recourse and the re-adjudication request. At the same time, this court unifies and changes (evolves) the judicial practice. Exercise of initial and revision jurisdiction by the High Court transformed this court into a first instance one and caused work overload for this court. In these circumstances, the need for constitutional changes arose in order to improve the performance of this court. In the context of the justice reform and the constitutional reform of July 2016, the constitutional provisions regulating the jurisdiction of the High Court were amended. These necessary constitutional amendments deprived this court of initial jurisdiction and also limited the right to file an appeal. However, these constitutional changes did not provide for the regulation of the transitional
situation concerning the authority that would adjudicate the special entities at a time when this court was deprived of the initial jurisdiction. This and other issues are discussed in this humble and non-exhaustive article.
Keywords: initial jurisdiction of the High Court, special entities, revision jurisdiction, unification and change of practice.
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