ENFORCEMENT OF THE EUROPEAN UNION LAW BEFORE THE ALBANIAN CONSTITUTIONAL COURT AND THE HIGH COURT

With the entry into force of the Interim Agreement in 2005 between the EU and Albania, Albanian judges had the obligation to partly apply several provisions of the agreement (the EU law) even in the pre-accession stage. This position was reinforced in 2009, with the ratification of the Stabilisation and Association Agreement, which laid down the obligation of the Albanian government to approximate its existing and future legislation in line with EU acquis and ensure proper implementation. Consequently, as of 2009, Albanian courts had to apply the EU law. The application of the EU law by Albanian courts entails the duty of judges with a twofold task: firstly, to construe their arguments in line with EU law or as close as possible, and secondly, to set aside the domestic law which is found to be incompatible with the EU law. This paper outlines some Albanian courts' decisions concerning applying the EU Law before accession to the European Union. The paper argues that Albanian judges have adopted a ‘Euro-friendly’ approach by referring to the EU Law and SAA agreement even in the pre-accession period. Nevertheless, looking closely at court decisions, the EU law is applied as a persuasive source of law to support the court’s decision and not to explain the importance of relying on EU law or CJEU case law

The role of information and communication technology in fighting corruption in the judiciary system: the case of 2016 judicial reform in Albania

Corruption in the judiciary system has been considered by Albanian citizens and international organizations as deeply corrupt. In 2016 Albanian Parliament, supported by the EU and USA, adopted a judiciary reform to increase transparency, accountability, impartiality and citizens’ access to information. One way of preventing corruption and increasing citizens’ access to justice is by using information technology. This paper analyses the role of information and communication technology in preventing corruption in the Albanian judiciary system. The main research question is how and to what extent digitizing the judiciary contributes to preventing corruption in the judiciary system. The paper argues that the use of ICT in the judiciary system has been limited due to several factors, such as lack of legislation on the use of ICT in the judiciary system, absence of a unified automated case management system, lack of appropriate education or training of judiciary staff to use ICT and lack of reinvestments on ICT equipment in courts. The 2016 judicial reform, for the first time, emphasized the importance of digitizing the judiciary system in Albania. The paper concludes that digitizing the judiciary will increase integrity and prevent corruption in the judicial system

A reanalysis of the latest SH0ES data for H0H_0: Effects of new degrees of freedom on the Hubble tension

We reanalyze the recently released SH0ES data for the determination of $H_0$. We focus on testing the homogeneity of the Cepheid+SnIa sample and the robustness of the results in the presence of new degrees of freedom in the modeling of Cepheids and SnIa. We thus focus on the four modeling parameters of the analysis: the fiducial luminosity of SnIa $M_B$ and Cepheids $M_W$ and the two parameters ($b_W$ and $Z_W$) standardizing Cepheid luminosities with period and metallicity. After reproducing the SH0ES baseline model results, we allow for a transition of the value of any one of these parameters at a given distance $D_c$ or cosmic time $t_c$ thus adding a single degree of freedom in the analysis. When the SnIa absolute magnitude $M_B$ is allowed to have a transition at $D_c\simeq 50Mpc$ (about $160Myrs$ ago), the best fit value of the Hubble parameter drops from $H_{0}=73.04\pm1.04\,km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}$ to $H_0=67.32\pm 4.64\, km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}$ in full consistency with the Planck value. Also, the best fit SnIa absolute magnitude $M_B^>$ for $D>D_c$ drops to the Planck inverse distance ladder value $M_{B}^>=-19.43\pm 0.15$ while the low distance best fit $M_B^<$ parameter remains close to the original distance ladder calibrated value $M_{B}^<=-19.25\pm 0.03$. Similar hints for a transition behavior is found for the other three main parameters of the analysis ($b_W$, $M_W$ and $Z_W$) at the same critical distance $D_c\simeq 50\,Mpc$ even though in that case the best fit value of $H_0$ is not significantly affected. When the inverse distance ladder constraint on $M_B^>$ is included in the analysis, the uncertainties for $H_0$ reduce dramatically ($H_0= 68.2\pm 0.8\, km\,s^{-1}\,Mpc^{-1}$) and the $M_B$ transition model is strongly preferred over the baseline SH0ES model ($\Delta \chi^2 \simeq -15$, $\Delta AIC \simeq -13$) according to AIC and BIC model selection criteria.Comment: 49 pages, 21 Figures, 7 Tables. Invited submission to Universe (accepted for publication, to appear). 5 Figures added including an explicit demonstration of hints for M transition in the data (Fig. 17). The numerical analysis Mathematica (v. 11 and v. 12) files that lead to the production of the figures may be found at https://github.com/FOTEINISKARA/A-reanalysis-of-the-SH0ES-data-for-H_

The Bumpy Road of EULEX as an Exporter of Rule of Law in Kosovo

This paper analyses EULEX mission in Kosovo (hereafter EULEX) as an exporter of rule of law. From the deployment of the mission, two mainstream discourses have coined the effectiveness of EULEX establishing the rule of law in Kosovo. From the Brussels point of view, EULEX has marked a lot of progress in promoting the rule of law in Kosovo. On the other hand, based on international indexes and other secondary sources, EULEX has been harshly criticised to deliver its promises in strengthening the rule of law institutions, fighting organised crime, war crimes and reducing corruption. Beyond these discourses, the paper tries to explore whether, how and to what extent, EULEX has promoted rule of law in Kosovo. The paper argues that EULEX has failed to promote rule of law in Kosovo due to 1) the costs of adaptation or compliance as function of the misfit between EULEX institutional approach on rule of law and domestic conditions and 2) incapacity of Kosovo rule of law institutions to interact with EULEX in strengthening the rule of law as a result of political interference on judiciary and police sector