President of GJA Shkoder, Valbona Duraj: We are working with two judges, when minimally are needed four!

The President of GJA Shkodra,Mrs. Valbona Duraj held one of the most interesting speeches of the event. According to here there are several problems that need to be considered, and several issues that need an urgent solution. She said that “It is necessary to fulfill the administrative courts with the number of Judges needed. Currently first instance courts of GJA, Shkodra, Gjirokastra and Korca are working with the 2 judges, instead of 4 that are defined by law “.

Nowadays, this is in fact one of the main problems that is evidenced by the interest of all stakeholders. If the legal criteria established (seniority in office, professional training) has become an obstacle to fulfill the judicial body, then they should be amended as soon as possible through a legislative procedure.

“Consider legal interventions to allow PHD students to be exempt from professional testing because of the complexity that represents the administrative law, leaving only the criterion of seniority,” said Duraj. It also recommended that through a legal amendment, the criterion of seniority be reduced from 7 to 5 years in this way it facilitates the process of completing the GJA judicial body. As soon as these criteria are abrogated through legal amendments and regulations, that soon will be fulfilled the requirements. Duraj gave the idea that 3^rd year PHD students that have to do one year of practice, can do that in the Administrative Court. This opinion was discussed also with the Minister of Justice, but has not found a solution yet. Currently the PHD students are assigned to the Court of Tirana, but none of them is send to finish the practice in GJA, because of current legal definitions for practices.

If this is currently impossible, there should be an increase of legal assistants. The legal assistant prepares the case for trial and an increase in number,could be a short term solution to increase the efficiency of administrative adjudication. Even setting the same number of judges, currently four for each GJA first instance should be reviewed. The courts that have the highest number of cases should have a high number of judges, compared to those that have less number of cases. Is recommended to increase to 10 the number of judges for the first instance in RSH, given the increasing number and volume of complains in these first years of their operation. A detailed study of the specific load must be taken in advance, considering the new administrative territorial division of the RSH, which was enabled de jure and de facto after the election of 21 June 2015.

The marge of cases that cannot be appealed provided by GJA, should be increasing. This is dictated by the nature of administrative discretion but also from the experience of other countries with developed administrative justice. If we want to have efficiency of administrative proceedings, the Article 45 of the existing law should be revised.