Legal changes made by the Albanian Assembly have simplified the appointment of the remaining 3 members of the Constitutional Court (CC).
The CC has only 6 of its 9 members now – 3 appointed by the Assembly and 3 by the President. The remaining 3 members should be appointed by the High Court (HC).
The latter has only 7 of its 19 members now. The amendments to the Law on the constitutional Court made on March 23 lowered the High Court quorum needed for the appointment of members to the CC from three fourths to half of members, i.e., from 14 to 9 members.
This means that once 2 more members of the High Court are appointed, they can appoint members to the Constitutional Court, thus speeding up the process.
Another change made to law related the re-appointment of CC judges to other positions once their term in office has ended. The law now specifies that prosecutors and judges among Constitutional Courts members will be assigned to the Court of Appeals after their term ends, while before it said they would be assigned to similar positions they held before becoming CC members. They must have served as prosecutor or judge for at least 7 years in a first instance court.
A last legal amendment concerns the drafting of Constitutional Court candidate lists by the Judicial Appointments Council (KED). It was required to provide separate lists of magistrates and those coming from outside the justice system when the Constitutional Court has two empty seats. The amendments require the KED to provide only one list now.
