The Constitutional Court and Supreme Court of Kosovo exchanged mutual experience with counterpart courts from Albania

Judges of the Constitutional Courts of the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Albania, together with judges of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Kosovo and the High Court of the Republic of Albania, discussed for two consecutive days and exchanged their professional views regarding the role and separation of competencies between the jurisdiction of the constitutional courts and regular courts in respective countries.

The President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Kosovo, Mrs. Gresa Caka-Nimani, in her opening remarks emphasized the importance of professional cooperation and mutual exchange of experiences between Kosovo courts and their counterparts from Albania. Meanwhile, the President of the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Albania, Mrs. Vitore Tusha, in her introductory speech stressed the importance of preserving the independence of the constitutional jurisdiction and the independence of the judiciary in both countries.

After the introductory presentations of the Deputy President of the High Court of Albania, Mr. Sokol Sadushi and the Deputy President of the Supreme Court of Kosovo, Mrs. Mejreme Mema, the conference continued with discussions of judges of four courts on different theories of constitutional interpretation, the principle of subsidiarity and the need to interpret laws and the Constitution in the spirit of the European Convention on Human Rights and the case law of the European Court of Human Rights.

 In the first conference of this format, organized by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo with the support of the German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation “IRZ”, the topic of discussion and comparative treatment was the divergence of the case law of regular courts, interpretation and manifestly arbitrary application of applicable law, and the consolidation of domestic jurisprudence in line with the decisions of the European Court of Human Rights.

 During the two-day conference, the judges of the highest level courts of the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Albania, had the opportunity to be informed more closely about the best German practices regarding the interpretation of the Constitution and the verification of the constitutionality of laws and acts, which were discussed in detail at the conference by the former judge of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany, Prof. Dr. Reinhard Gaier.