Centre Albulena HAXHIU – Kosovo Minister of Justice To the minister’s left: Alriza BESHI – President of the Kosovo Chamber of Notaries To the minister’s right: Judicial Counsel Richard Bock, notary (ret.), Chief Representative of the Federal Chamber of German Civil Law Notaries for International Affairs Kosovo
Federal Minister of Justice Dr Marco Buschmann received Albulena Haxhiu, Minister of Justice of Kosovo, and her delegation in Berlin on 16 June 2022. The official visit focused on the ongoing judicial reforms in the Republic of Kosovo.
IRZ is providing advice on this and other reform topics as part of EU EUKOJUST project. This is why Teresa Thalhammer, project coordinator at IRZ, represented the IRZ management at the meeting.
Ministers Haxhiu and Buschmann stressed the significant interest in stronger cooperation between their two ministries in matters of civil and criminal law matters and exchanged views on current challenges such as in the area of digitalisation, which is accompanied by similar issues in both countries.
Reform of the Judicial Sector in Kosovo
The minister also used the meeting to report on the key objectives of judicial sector reform in Kosovo. In doing so, she emphasised the high expectations that the Kosovar population places in its government to achieve tangible results in building a functioning and trustworthy judiciary.
Long-standing Cooperation with the Federal Chamber of Notaries
The visit to the ministry was preceded by a working meeting on reforms of the notarial system at the invitation of the Federal Chamber of Notaries (BNotK).
The Federal Chamber of Notaries recently examined the Kosovo Law on Notary Services and drafted some reform proposals as part of its long-standing cooperation with the Kosovo Chamber of Notaries.
The President of the Kosovo Chamber of Notaries, Aliriza Beshi, his Vice-President and another chamber representative therefore attended the meeting in addition to the minister and representatives of the ministry. The two chambers engaged in constructive technical discussions, during which Judicial Counsel Richard Bock, retired notary and Chief Representative of the German Federal Chamber of Civil Law Notaries for International Affairs, and two other BNotK representatives elucidated the reform proposals.
Minister Haxhiu updated the meeting about the planned establishment of a working group to prepare a reform draft, and it was agreed that BNotK will be involved in advising the working group.
The German Foundation for International Legal Cooperation (IRZ) organised the specialist conference “Cooperation of ordinary general jurisdiction and constitutional court jurisdiction for safeguarding the rule of law – Experiences from Kosovo, Albania and Germany” on 17th and 18th May 2022 in Kosovo.
More than 80 judges as well as academic employees of both the constitutional courts and the Supreme Courts of the Republics of Kosovo and Albania shared their experiences with respect to allocation of rights and duties between the constitutional court jurisdiction and the ordinary general jurisdiction. On behalf of the IRZ, Prof. Dr Reinhard Gaier, Judge at the Federal Constitutional Court (former), made a significant contribution to the event from the German side.
In their welcome address, the four presiding judges emphasised the importance of a regional exchange of experiences across courts and were reminiscent of the development of the relationships of both the general jurisdictions.
The first panel of the conference dwelt on the responsibility of the constitutional courts and the role of the ordinary courts in constitutional interpretation of laws. In his keynote address, Prof. Dr Gaier presented the process of precise judicial review and differentiated between the judicial competence of each court and the monopoly of rejection of the Federal Constitutional Court. The four participants from the four courts represented later discussed the practical implementation of the concrete process of judicial review in Kosovo and Albania and discussed current developments and problems.
The second panel discussed the topic of obviously incorrect application of the law and legal interpretation by the ordinary general jurisdiction and proffered the possibility of a comprehensive consideration from the point of view of both constitutional courts and Supreme Courts. In the process, the case-law of the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR) as well as the German practice presented by Prof Dr Gaier was also included and discussed. In this context, Prof Dr Gaier stressed that the German Federal Constitutional Court examines only the constitutional law and limits its monitoring of the decisions of the ordinary courts only to violations of the constitution.
The first day of the event ended with lively discussions between the participants and a summarising of the conclusions by Prof Dr Gaier.
On the following day, the question of consolidation of the national case-law and legal certainty was discussed in a third panel, as an essential component of a fair proceeding. While the Albanian and Kosovan speakers mainly adduced to the case-law of the ECHR in this respect, Prof Dr Gaier highlighted this question – as per German practice – under the constitutional principle of rule of law.
The fourth and last panel focussed on the role of the ordinary courts in the full implementation of the judgements of the constitutional courts for compensating for breaches of human rights. In this context, interim relief due to lengthy proceedings and its effect on the ordinary general jurisdiction was discussed.
The event was received with great interest by the participants. The introductory speeches by Prof Dr Gaier and the subsequent presentations by the Kosovan and Albanian participants provided a basis for an intensive exchange on experiences as well as current developments and challenges in Kosovo and Albania. The participants also discussed possible solutions based on the respective legal systems.
The event was financed by the Federal Ministry of Justice within the framework of institutional cooperation.
The cooperation with the constitutional courts and the Supreme Courts of both countries is expected to be pursued and intensified in the future.
Since October 2020, the IRZ has been spearheading the implementation of the large-scale EU-funded grant project "European Programme/ Kosovo Justice Reform (EUKOJUST)" in an international consortium with Dutch partners CILC and the Ministry of Justice and Public Administration of the Republic of Croatia (MoJPA).
EUKOJUST has a volume of €7 million and a term of 40 months, and supports Kosovo's institutions to implement judicial reform and the Rule of Law Strategy, which emerged from a previous comprehensive review of the judicial sector in Kosovo.
EUKOJUST aims to bring Kosovo's judicial system in line with European and international standards and to strengthen the trust of the population in the judicial system. It also builds on the results from previous projects and implements consolidated and needs-oriented reform initiatives for the entire judicial sector under one umbrella organisation.
The beneficiaries of the project include the Ministry of Justice, the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council, the Kosovo Judicial Council, the Kosovo Judicial Academy, the legal department offices of the Prime Minister’s office, the staff of courts and public prosecution offices and independent legal professions, as well as judges, public prosecutors and also civil society organisations in the judicial sector.
The EUKOJUST project team consists of a 19-member international team, numerous international and national experts on site managed by the team leader, and implements a range of scheduled activities. It aims to strengthen capacity and inter-institutional coordination in the judicial sector, promote the independence and transparency of the judiciary, consolidate and align the legal and institutional framework, and to improve access to justice, in particular for women and marginalised or disadvantaged groups.
A project steering committee comprises representatives of the EU Delegation in Kosovo, the individual Kosovar ministries and the consortium members of the IRZ, CILC and the Croatian Ministry of Justice. The committee meets at regular intervals and steers and monitors the progress of the project.
