ALBANIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Maksim Haxhia, Artan Hajdari and Eris Hysi, Haxhia & Hajdari Attorneys at Law
proceeds without promptly objecting to a known pro - cedural breach may waive the objection. 7.3 Powers and Duties of Arbitrators Arbitrators are required to conduct the proceedings fairly, independently and impartially. The tribunal must provide equal procedural conditions and a genuine opportunity for each party to present facts, evidence and legal arguments in accordance with the adver - sarial principle. Within the scope of the arbitration agreement, the tri - bunal may: • rule on its own jurisdiction; • manage the procedure; • determine the relevance and weight of evidence; • require parties to produce documents; • appoint experts; and • grant interim measures. It must apply the law governing the merits in accord - ance with Article 37, respect the contract and applica - ble trade usages, and issue a reasoned award meeting the statutory form requirements. Arbitrators are also subject to continuing disclosure obligations and the statutory conflict rules. When fixing costs, the tribunal must ensure that recoverable costs are reasonable in light of complexity, value, time spent and other rel - evant circumstances. 7.4 Legal Representatives The Arbitration Law expressly permits a party to act in person or through an authorised representative. Par - ties are free to choose their representatives, and the arbitral tribunal may not exclude a chosen representa - tive solely because the representative does not hold a domestic professional qualification. Accordingly, Law No 52/2023 does not require coun - sel in an Albania-seated international arbitration to be admitted to the Albanian Bar merely because Albania is the seat. This allows foreign-qualified lawyers to appear in the arbitral proceedings, subject to the par - ties’ agreement and any applicable institutional rules. A distinction should be made for related proceedings before the Albanian courts, such as interim relief, court assistance, setting-aside or enforcement. Represen -
tation before domestic courts is governed by Albanian procedural and advocacy legislation, and local rep - resentation requirements may apply to those judicial proceedings. 8. Evidence 8.1 Collection and Submission of Evidence Albanian-seated arbitration does not adopt US-style discovery as a default procedural model. The parties bear the burden of proving the facts supporting their claims or defences and ordinarily submit documents and other evidence with their pleadings. The tribunal may require a party to produce specified documents or other evidence within a fixed period and has broad authority to determine relevance, authenticity and evi - dentiary weight. Witnesses may be heard at a hearing, and with the parties’ consent the tribunal may receive signed writ - ten witness statements. Parties may put supplemen - tary questions to witnesses. The tribunal may appoint experts and may permit party-appointed experts to participate at a hearing. Law No 52/2023 does not contain a comprehensive code of disclosure privilege comparable to common-law systems; such questions are generally managed through the parties’ agree - ment, the tribunal’s procedural directions and appli - cable institutional rules. Cross-examination and docu - ment production are therefore matters of procedure rather than automatic domestic-court requirements. 8.2 Rules of Evidence The Arbitration Law contains its own flexible evi - dentiary framework. The parties carry the burden of proving the facts on which they rely, while the tribunal determines how evidence is taken and assesses its relevance, accuracy and evidentiary value. The tribu - nal may order the production of documents or other evidence and may appoint experts. The domestic rules of evidence do not automatically apply to an arbitral tribunal in the same manner as they apply to a civil court. For witness examination, the law directs that the Civil Procedure Code be applied as far as possible. More generally, where the Arbitration Law and the parties’ agreement do not regulate a proce -
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