Harmonisation of judicial practice remains an emerging issue in the Western Balkan region. A particular focus of the EU and Council of Europe joint action “Initiative for legal certainty in the Western Balkans” is to deal with the inconsistency of the judicial practice and incoherent application of the European Convention on Human Rights by national courts. In this context the action has been assisting key beneficiaries in the region in the process of developing courts’ key resources and capacities.

In Albania the action supported the High Judicial Council of Albania in the process of upgrading its existing database of decisions, thus enhancing the capacities of the institution to communicate effectively and transparently through its website.

In North Macedonia, the Case Law Information System for the Supreme Court was designed and developed, enabling the beneficiary institution to conduct unform collection, processing and advanced search of court decisions.

The developed solutions contribute to further harmonisation of the national judicial practice and thus enhance effective and qualitative justice in Albania and North Macedonia.

The initiatives were organised within the action “Initiative for Legal Certainty in the Western Balkans”, implemented in the framework of the joint programme of the European Union and Council of Europe “Horizontal Facility for Western Balkans and Turkey-Phase 2019-2022” that enables Beneficiaries to meet their reform agendas in the fields of human rights, rule of law and democracy and to comply with the European standards, including where relevant within the framework of the EU enlargement process