New judicial cooperation on the new Administrative Court

TIRANA, April 4 – Albania’s majority Democratic party-led coalition and the opposition Socialists approved by consensus on Monday the creation of the Collegium of the Administrative Court, which will be comprised by five judges from Albania’s Supreme Court.
The parties also agreed that for disputes regarding concession agreements or procurements the process will be handled by three judges, while for routine administrative disputes by only one judge.
The Administrative Court is to release the Albanian courts from much of the work as it will cover all the business-related issues. That has been a request of the international community for a long time. But the political fight had prevented it. Recently the two main political groupings have resumed cooperation on some important issues, the Administrative Court being one of them.
Justice has been Albania’s Achilles’ heel in its post-communist period.
Corruption, lack of professionalism and inefficiency or lack of cooperation among its institutions have always been a topic mentioned in the reports of the international institutions, and assisting the country’s judiciary has been a main area of assistance and attention from the European Union and the United States.
Italian deputy head of the High Council of Justice Michelle Vietti held a visit to Albania this week to meet with all top judicial officials and other top officials. He offered assistance to the country’s judiciary.
The Albanian High Council of Justice is in a moment of reform. Its previous deputy head resigned from the post and is now leading a newly-created political party.
The new one is yet to be elected. On Wednesday the parliamentarians debated on a new candidate but could not reach a consensus as the opposition Socialists also offered their candidate.
The United States, on the other hand, continued its assistance to the Albanian courts.
Last week they inaugurated the first installation of the court digital audio recording system at the Lezha District Court. Implemented with funding from USAID as part of the Albanian Justice Sector Strengthening Project (JuST), and in close partnership with the Albanian government and the judiciary, this marks the beginning of the implementation of a major technological advance in Albanian courts that helps enhance their efficiency and transparency.
The state-of-the-art digital court audio recording system brought by USAID introduces a proven, user-friendly technology that guarantees an accurate verbatim record of court proceedings, and makes disputes about what was actually said in the courtroom a thing of the past. As session audio records are included as part of the case file, they become available to all interested parties, thus helping enhance public access to court proceedings. Audio recording technology also promotes more professionalism and ethical behavior in the courtroom, given the permanent audio record produced.
By December 2013, the audio recording system will have been installed in every courtroom at the district and appellate levels, as well as the first instance and appellate serious crimes courts. Besides the installation of the equipment and the software, USAID, through the JuST project, is engaged in providing a comprehensive training program for session secretaries, judges and the court IT officers.
USAID JuST, which began in October 2010, is a five-year project to increase court transparency, fairness and efficiency; bolster watchdog and anticorruption roles of civil society organizations and media; and strengthen the legal profession and legal education in Albania