ALBANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Maksim Haxhia, Artan Hajdari and Eris Hysi, Haxhia & Hajdari Attorneys at Law
a common institutional choice, particularly where one party is foreign or the transaction is connected with a major project or public authority. Law No 52/2023 expressly permits arbitration to be administered by a permanent arbitral institution under its rules or to proceed on an ad hoc basis under rules agreed by the parties. The official public sources reviewed for this guide do not identify a newly estab - lished Albanian arbitral institution in the last 12 months that has become a significant administering centre for international cases. For ICC clauses concluded or proceedings commenced under the current institu - tional framework, practitioners should also note that the 2026 ICC Arbitration Rules entered into force on 1 June 2026. 1.4 National Courts Albania has not created a specialist arbitration court or a separate international commercial court. Judicial functions connected with arbitration are allocated to the ordinary courts by Law No 52/2023. The territorially competent first-instance court of gen - eral jurisdiction at the seat performs key support and supervisory functions, including certain appointments of arbitrators, review of challenges or termination of an arbitrator’s mandate, court assistance in taking evidence and orders connected with enforcement. Applications to set aside an Albania-seated award are determined by the Court of Appeal of General Jurisdiction in whose territorial jurisdiction the seat is located. This should be read against Albania’s reor - ganised judicial map, under which the general-juris - diction court structure was consolidated from 2023. Accordingly, the relevant court is identified by the statutory function and territorial competence rather than by a specialist arbitration division.
also applies where the seat is outside Albania or has not yet been determined. The 2023 law is based substantially on the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration, including the 2006 amendments, and UNCITRAL records Albania as a Model Law jurisdiction from 2023. The Albanian statute nevertheless contains a number of locally tailored provisions. These include: • specific eligibility restrictions for arbitrators; • detailed statutory conflict grounds and short dis - closure periods; • special formal requirements for consumer arbitra - tion agreements; • approval requirements for certain public entities; • a detailed default approach to allocating arbitration costs; and • prescribed content for awards. The law therefore follows the Model Law architecture while supplementing it with more prescriptive domes - tic rules in several areas. 2.2 Changes to National Law The principal legislative development remains the adoption of Law No 52/2023, which replaced the ear - lier position in which the former arbitration provisions of the Code of Civil Procedure had been repealed without a comprehensive standalone arbitration stat - ute. The 2023 law now provides a complete frame - work for domestic and international arbitration seated in Albania. As of July 2026, no significant amendment to Law No 52/2023 has been identified in the official legislative sources reviewed for this guide. The practical focus is therefore on implementation of the new statute and the development of court practice concerning juris - diction, interim measures, setting-aside and enforce - ment. Separately, parties using ICC arbitration should account for the 2026 ICC Arbitration Rules, in force from 1 June 2026. Those institutional changes are not amendments to Albanian national law, but they may affect the procedural design of Albania-related inter - national arbitrations where ICC Rules apply.
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
The principal legislation is Law No 52/2023 on Arbitra - tion in the Republic of Albania. It applies to domestic and international arbitration where the seat is in Alba - nia. Its provision on court-ordered interim measures
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