A delegation of the Albanian High Court paid a study visit on 22-24 April, at the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation to exchange experiences on harmonization of judicial practices in line with international standards, in particular the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR).

They explored the experience of the Documentation Office of the Italian Supreme Court of Cassation in the formation of documentation and case-law reports. Legal advisors of the Albanian High Court Documentation Office had the opportunity to hear the experience of peer practitioners on the functioning of documentation structures and dissemination of the court decisions, and shared concrete examples on how the quality of documentation, research methodologies and publications directly impacts the High Court’s abilities to fulfil its tasks and legal obligations towards the public. The exchanges focused on ways to strengthen the research and documentation practices and better use of the ECtHR’s case-law, thus providing a basis for harmonization of the judicial practice in Albania.

Albanian representatives were presented with the work of the Centre for Data Processing of the Italian Court and the functions of the “Italgiure” system for publishing the Court’s decisions. Discussions also focused on the role of the wider community of legal practitioners, including in the courts of appeals and courts of first instance in unifying domestic practice, thus nurturing the legal debate on due application of legislation and the establishment of legal databases for courts and public use.

This activity was organized in the framework of the action “Improving the protection of the right to property and facilitating the execution of ECtHR judgments in Albania (D-REX III)”, under the European Union and the Council of Europe joint programme, the "Horizontal Facility for the Western Balkans and Türkiye".