Extraordinary legal means against final criminal decisions in Albania

• Author: Arben V. Prifti
• Position: Mediterranean University of Albania
• Pages: 122-128

Vol. 1 No. 1

January 2017

European Journal of Economics, Law and Social Sciences

IIPCCL Publishing, Graz-Austria

ISSN 2519-1284

Acces online at www.iipccl.org

122

Extraordinary legal means against fi nal criminal decisions in Albania

Av. Arben V. Pri i

Mediterranean University of Albania

Abstract

This paper aims to address the extraordinary legal means against a fi nal court decision in a

criminal process, which means the review of a court decision at the Supreme Court of the

Republic of Albania. In jurisprudence and practice of procedure, the usual means against a

fi nal court decision consist of complaint or appeal to the Court of Appeal and Recourse to the

Supreme Court.

The Criminal Procedure provides importance to common means of appeal against a fi nal

decision in general and to the extraordinary means of retrial for a fi nal decision in particular.

In reality, the extraordinary means against a fi nal criminal decision is nothing but the

application that the parties address to the Supreme Court in order to review and decide on

the fi nal decision of the lower courts. However, in this case, the application for review must

contain new evidence, which was not known and could not be known by the parties in all

instances (arbitration levels), an evidence of great importance in the judicial process that can

change the entire course of the previous judicial process. In this sense, the criminal college of

the Supreme Court, in the consultation chamber, through the evaluation and assessment of the

new evidence, may perceive his conviction so as to decide to uphold or reverse the fi nal court

decision and the delivery of the case for review to the lower competent court which has given

the previous fi nal decision for the defendant.

The goal of addressing the review means of fi nal decisions in criminal processes is that justice

be served, taking and examining the criminal process, all evidence related to the o ense, or the

facts and circumstances of its commission , which were not previously known and received, but

that may a ect the guilt or innocence of the defendant. The paper starts with an introduction

and it is divided into several sub-topics which fi rst show the legal means, the extraordinary

legal means, the review of the fi nal criminal decision, and fi nally the conclusions.

Keywords: Review tools, fi nal decision, fi nal decision, court, prosecutor, defendant, lawyer,

new evidence.

Introduction

This scientifi c paper shall address a topic on extraordinary legal means, types

of extraordinary means, terms for their submission, court competence, persons

authorized to submit these means, etc.

Despite the guarantees provided in criminal proceedings, which aim at uncovering

the truth, despite the fact that the judgment of a criminal proceeding aims at the proof

or substantiation of the factual situation, the way the occurrence took place in case of

commission of the o ense, it is not excluded the possibility that the court's decision

be incorrect, or the court decision to have been taken in serious breach of material law

and the criminal procedural law.

The causes which lead to taking an unfair decision or not based in law, may be