THE ADDRESS OF PRESIDENT TOPI AT THE DECREEING CEREMONY OF THE HIGH COURT MEMBERS.

July 31st, 2008

Distinguished members of the High Court,

Distinguished friends and guests,


I am pleased and privileged to address today the ceremony of the official presentation of the six newest members of the High Court: this constitutional body that makes up the highest level of the judicial branch of power exercise and that at the same time that exercises within it, the final decision-making authority in delivering justice.

At the prelude of your engagement in this new duty, which starts today and will last a nine year long term, almost a decade, of course the expectations from you are very high.

The process of selection and your election to this important duty were accompanied not only by the transparency and qualitative consulting from Albanian experts and international partners, whom I have the opportunity to sincerely thank today, but they were also accompanied by a widespread political and institutional debate and notable public sensitivity.

The different political or professional viewpoints eloquently demonstrate that the issues of justice, especially the consolidation of its institutions’ independence in Albania have become primary challenges to meet the contemporary standards of the Rule of Law.

The professional criteria and standards and not the politicized and rushed and in some cases, even emotional assessments must accompany and crown such constitutional and institutional processes by giving an image of inter-action and not prejudging relations which inevitably can have negative effects in the public opinion and especially in the community of judges interested and committed to increase the effectiveness, independence and integrity of the judicial branch of power.

The court does not belong to anyone in particular, but it belongs to all of us. The respect for the justice institutions must be demonstrated not formally or through political rhetoric, but through a clean political will for wide and deep continuous reforms, with responsibility, professional assessment and civil communication ethic in order to produce a powerful public image about a judiciary free of corruption, for which we all are hungry.

There is a saying which confirms what I just cited: ‘’justice is to a nation like everyday bread, for which it always hungry’’ which means that ‘’society is always attentive about justice and being such it is an observer and measurer of the integrity reflected by the judiciary itself.

The responsibility that has been entrusted upon you is unavoidable exposed to the public and at the same time, it is decisive in the judicial policy of the Albanian state.

Your professional activity through the special object charged to the High Court by the Constitution and the laws can cause a double sensitivity: in both the interests of the highest holders of the power, upon whom this Court exercises the initial jurisdiction and in the interests of the citizens through exercising the reviewing jurisdiction.

Naturally in your daily engagement, the professional standards required by you to demonstrate will be:
- First, an example to the judges of the two other levels of the judicial system, whose verdicts your will review.
- Second: an expression of the judicial worthiness and integrity which being such would deserve the respect of every subject of the right, who has entrusted the case to the judicial system.

Distinguished members,

Your coming to the pyramidal top of the judicial branch of power exercising coincides with a period of involvement in the integrating processes of the Albanian state. At a time like this, the value of justice is being emphasized more and more as a condition and premise to gain the status of a European country not only in the physical map, but also in the political one and when all the institutions of the judicial sector are demonstrating the final alienation from the apathy and clienteles.

The judicial power is a determining factor when it comes to introduce our state to the international arena and that is why my message to you today refers to two undisputable qualities for the success of you mission: dignity and professionalism.

The dignity notion requires you not to allow interferences in your work from other branches of power and neither from certain names of power-holders whose interests are affected or are decided in the High Court.

Your colourful background must not pre-set your behaviour in the future. Your true dependence must not be from political preferences, although the Assembly passed your names (nominations), but only from the Constitution and laws which make up your best guarantee for a judicial career.

From you I would especially pretend professionalism, because the High Court is in a certain way ‘’the Parliamentary Assembly’’ of the judicial branch of power which ‘’justifies’’ the Albanian jurisprudence and seal finally the fate of the Albanian community which goes to the courts.
Justice requires maximal correctness in the harmony among the law and the internal conviction of a judge. Thomas Fuller (a famed British historian and clergyman) has said: ‘’Harsh justice is the greatest injustice.’’ To act with professionalism means to know and implement the limits of the just, because ‘’the just’’ can be equalled with ‘’punishment.’’

The unifying decisions of the High Court are also laws to the courts of the two first levels, and that is why your decision making must be the expression of a revolution of the juridical thought, where dealing with the jurisprudential principals must be led only by professional convictions and must be the product of a juridical debate which often evolutes the very concepts of the just.

At the conclusion of my address and after almost a year at the head of the Albanian state I can concluded that the success of a just cause requires no doubt good will. The Roman jurists placed at the foundation of justice the understanding. I wish you to fully justify throughout your term of serving, the understanding bestowed upon you by the highest ranking state authorities.


Thank you!