Authorities

1. The Constitutional Court of the Republic of Albania is not part of the ordinary judicial system.
It has a special jurisdiction to review the constitutionality of laws and other normative acts. The Constitutional Court guarantees respect for the Constitution and makes the final interpretation of the Constitution (Article 124/1 of the Constitution). In exercising its function, the Constitutional Court it is subject only to the Constitution (Article 124/2 of the Constitution). The powers of the Constitutional Court are provided for in Article 131 of the Constitution. According to this article, the Constitutional Court decides on:
a) the compatibility of the law with the Constitution or with international agreements as provided for in Article 122;
b) the compatibility of international agreements with the Constitution, prior to their ratification;
c) the compatibility of normative acts of the central and local bodies with the Constitution and international agreements;
ç) the conflicts of competencies between powers, as well as between the central government and local government;
d) the constitutionality of the parties and other political organizations, as well as their activity, according to Article 9 of this Constitution;
dh) the dismissal from duty of the President of the Republic and verification of his inability to exercise his functions;
e) the issues bearing a connection to the electability and compliance in assuming the functions of the President of the Republic, MPs, functionaries of bodies foreseen in the Constitution, as well as to the verification of their election;
ë) the constitutionality of the referendum and verification of its results;
f) the final examination of the complaints of individuals against the acts of the public power or judicial acts impairing the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, after all effective legal means for the protection of those rights have been exhausted, unless provided otherwise by the Constitution.
2. The Constitutional Court shall, when recourse being sought for examining a law on the revision of the Constitution approved by the Assembly according to Article 177, control only the compliance with the procedural requirements foreseen in the Constitution.

2. The Constitutional Court decides also on the constitutionality of:

- the decision of the Assembly on the discharge from office of the President of the Republic (Articles 90/3, 91/2 of the Constitution);
- the decision of the Assembly on the discharge from office of the judges of Supreme Court (Article 140/4 of the Constitution);
- the decision of the Council of Ministers on the discharge from office of the mayors of communes or municipalities (Article 115 of the Constitution);

3. Recourse to the Constitutional Court shall be sought upon the request of:
 
a) President of the Republic;
b) Prime Minister;
c) Not less than one-fifth of the members of Assembly;
ç) People’s Advocate;
d) Head of High State Audit;
dh) Any court, under Article 145/2 of the Constitution;
e) Any commissioner established by law for the protection of the fundamental rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution;
ë) High Judicial Council and High Prosecutorial Council;
f) Local governance units;
g) Religious communities’ forums;
gj) Political parties;
h) Organizations;
i) Individuals.
 
2. The entities provided for in sub-paragraphs “d”, “dh”, “e”, “ë”, “f”, “g”, “gj”, “h”, and “i”, may file a request only regarding the issues connected to their interests.

4. The applications submitted before the Constitutional Court pursue the following procedure:
After being registered, the application shall be submitted to the Chairperson of the Constitutional Court, who takes the measures for assigning of the case rapporteur by lot, in accordance with the Court’s Rules of Procedures. The judge-rapporteur presents the case before the chamber composed of three members, including the rapporteur. The chamber decides on the admissibility of the application, i.e. the transfer of the case for examination to the plenary session. If the chamber fails to decide unanimously, the case is transferred for examination to the Meeting of Judges that decides by majority of votes. In cases when the subject-matter of the application does not fall under the authority of the Constitutional Court or when the applicant is not legitimate to put the Constitutional Court into motion, the case is not transferred to the plenary session.
The plenary sessions are public and respect the principle of adversarial proceedings, as well as other fundamental principles of the ordinary judgment, and especially of the constitutional judgment. In cases of interpretation of the Constitution, the judgment can be conducted only on the basis of respective documentation. The parties may be represented by their lawyers.
Costs of judicial proceedings before the Constitutional Court are subject to the rules provided by the “Law on court fees”.

5. At the end of each judicial review, the Court expresses itself through decision.

The decisions of the Constitutional Court are reasoned in a written form and enter into force on the day of their publication in the Official Gazette. The Constitutional Court may decide that its decision examining the certain act becomes effective on another date. The decisions of the Constitutional Court are final and binding for enforcement (Article 132 of Constitution).
As a rule, decisions of the Constitutional Court do not have retroactive effects. However, the law has foreseen exceptional circumstances: decisions that abrogate criminal sentences, even during the phase of their execution; decisions that interpret the Constitution; decisions related to the non-exhausted consequences of the abrogated normative act; and decisions related to the court’s decisions as far as these latter are not final and irrevocable.