Newly established administrative courts facing problems

TIRANA, March 13 – Four months after its launch, the installation of an audio system and the use of an electronic draw to select judges remain unresolved issues for the administrative courts. In a meeting with representatives of the High Council of Justice this week, administrative court officials also identified lack of adequate facilities and staff as barriers in their appropriate functioning.
Erio Roshi, the head of the Tirana Administrative Court, said some 200 cases were tried in the first two months of the court’s functioning in late 2013 while another 600 are being examined.
The four-year odyssey of administrative courts in Albania came to an end last November when six administrative courts were set up in Albania’s key regions. Their establishment gave an end to the saga of the administrative courts system as an important step in reforming the judicial system, ensuring legal review of administrative decisions by independent courts, increasing transparency and fighting corruption in the civil service.
The establishment of the administrative court had been blocked by the approval of the three laws required by the European Commission for Albania’s EU bid, among which the law on the High Court.
Last March, the High Council of Justice selected forty-three judges for six first instance Administrative Courts. The Administrative Courts of Vlora, Shkodra, Durres, Korca and Gjirokastra will have 4 judges each while the Tirana Administrative Court will have 16 judges. The Appeals Administrative Court is expected to have seven judges.
The approval of the legal framework paving the way to the Administrative Court and the payment of accumulated debts to private companies are the two key requests the business community had made to the political class ahead of next June’s elections.
The law is an important step in reforming the judicial system, ensuring legal review of administrative decisions by independent courts, increasing transparency and fighting corruption in the civil service. The Law on Administrative Courts provides for first instance administrative courts to be set up at central and regional level, and for a court of appeal and a dedicated chamber in the High Court. This should ease the case burden of other courts and allow specialised judges to deal with administrative cases, provided that the necessary resources are allocated.