Building on Core Strengths: Lessons from Justice Sector Reform in Albania

Abstract

Kick-started by a unanimous decision by parliament in 2016, rule of law reform in Albania is the first radical attempt in the Western Balkans at cleansing the justice system from corrupt and incompetent elements, burdensome procedures and other dysfunctionalities. While not discarding the ‘problem-solving method’ that defines the EU’s approach and that of many other international donors to transition processes in the region, it is by applying an ‘appreciative inquiry’ method to the findings gathered from extensive field research carried out in the ALBE project that this contribution identifies and assesses the features of the country’s new structures and institutions that belong to the ‘positive core’ of justice sector reform: vision, values, key competences, basic infrastructure, embedded knowledge, learning processes, organisational achievements, technical and financial assets and resources, facilitating macro trends, and the solidarity of partners. In a constructive, yet critical way, this chapter shapes up those (f)actors that help drive rule of law reform in the six countries of the Western Balkans (WB6) forward. It finds that, in order to be resilient enough to resist the kind of capture witnessed in some member states that have joined the EU since 2004, justice sector institutions in the WB6 should closely observe Albania’s ongoing reform efforts at earning ‘throughput legitimacy’ and make sure that they are well governed, plan for the long term, take account of the availability of local resources, and carry out regular risk-management exercises.