Judiciary of Albania

The judiciary of Albania is the court system of Albania, which interprets and applies Albanian law. Albania's judicial system is a civil law system divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction and administrative courts. It is governed by the High Judicial Council (Këshilli i Lartë Gjyqësor), aided by the office of the President of Albania, the Ministry of Justice, and the various courts' chairpersons.

The judiciary is defined by the national constitution (Kushtetuta) with a hierarchical structure, with the Constitutional Court (Gjykata Kushtetuese) and the Supreme Court (Gjykata e Lartë) at the apex. The District Courts (Gjykatat e Rrethit Gjyqësor) are the primary trial courts, and the Courts of Appeal (Gjykatat e Apelit) are the primary appellate courts.

The system is plagued by a lack of confidence from the public, backlogs spanning years, corruption, political attacks and attempts to undermine the independence of judges, and underfunding.

In 2016, cross-party support resulted in a wide-ranging reform effort, including the introduction of the vetting law. This also resulted in the creation of SPAK, and the corresponding "special courts" of first instance and appeal, operating in parallel to the regular civil/criminal courts.