Albert and Students Analyze Albanian Constitutional Reform

Richard Albert ’03, Visiting Associate Professor of Law and Canadian Bicentennial Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science, recently collaborated with law students on a major report about constitutional reform in Albania. Albert had been invited in October 2015 to provide analysis of and recommendations to reform the Constitution of Albania.

Sergio Guiliano ’16 LLM, Iulia Padeanu ’17, Evan Welber ’18, and Youlin Yuan ’17 worked with Albert on the report. The analysis was on the Draft Law on Amendments to the Albanian Constitution. The Albanians had identified shortcomings in their Constitution that they wished to amend, especially with an eye toward entering the European Union. The report from Yale Law School gave recommendations for long-lasting democratic change.

“This was a wonderful opportunity to introduce law students to constitutional design. How it works, what the product looks like, and why it matters,” Albert described. “We worked as a team, from start to finish, and all of us were equal partners in producing the report. It was really special for me to work with this group of exceptional students.”

Albert had previously been a Consultant to the Special Parliamentary Committee on the Reform of the Judicial System in Albania and submitted comments in July 2015 on his analysis of the justice system.

“This project really sums up my educational experience as an LLM at YLS,” said Sergio Giuliano. “It gave me the opportunity to work closely with a professor who is a leading world scholar on his field of expertise; apply my past experience, deepen my knowledge by conducting my own research, and learn about other topics which I am less familiarized with; and contribute to a process that is shaping a country’s institutional layout.”

“It was extremely engaging to hear everyone’s thoughts on the issues and develop suggestions that will hopefully have a positive impact in the creation of a new and stronger Albanian constitution,” added Iulia Padeanu. “I was delighted to have the opportunity to look further into the Constitutional Court, as constitutional law has been something I intended to further explore during my time at YLS.”

Richard Albert is a Visiting Associate Professor of Law and the Canadian Bicentennial Visiting Associate Professor of Political Science at Yale Law School, and an Associate Professor and Dean’s Research Scholar at Boston College Law School. A specialist in comparative constitutional law, he holds degrees from Harvard, Oxford, and Yale Universities.