33 Countries of Origin’ Profiles

Produced by Euro-CIDES -FR- CAPTIVE/ JUST/2015/RDAP/AG/VICT/9243 which th e president s erves as th e head of state a nd th e prime minister a s th e head of government. President is Ilir META and Prime Minister, Edi RAMA. The parliament is the unicameral r epresentative body o f the citizens of Albania andis elected b y the people to a four-year term o n the basis of direct, universal, periodic and equal suffrage b y secret ballot. There are 140 deputies in the parliament, which are elected through a party-list proportional representation s ystem. The parliament has the power to decide the direction of domestic and foreign policy, approve or amend the constitution, declare war on another state, ratify or annul international treaties, elect the president, the supreme court, the attorney general and their deputies and control the activity of state radio and television, state news agency and other official information media. Th e judicial system o f Albania is a civil law s ystem divided between courts with regular civil and criminal jurisdiction and administrative courts. It is codified and based on the French law. Major institutions of the branch include th e supreme court, constitutional court, court of appeal, and th e administrative court. Law enforcement in the country is primarily the responsibility of the Albanian Police. It is the main and largest state law enforcement agency in the country. It carries nearly all general police duties that includes criminal investigation, patrol activity, traffic policing and border control. Cultural Traditions Lekë Dukagjini's kanun is an ethnological and cultural wealth of Albania. In a people whose history is marked by foreign administration, local customs spread over dozens or even hundreds of centuries are welcome to reinforce national identity. The work of Lekë Dukagjini's kanun is composed of 12 books. Note however that through the articles and the reading of the corpus the environment in which people most likely adopted the customs of Kanun seems to correspond to a period between the fourteenth and eighteenth century. The word "kanun" would be passed in Albanian by the Turkish "kanôn", it comes etymologically from the Greek "kanon" and means "rule". Failing to be the archetype of the code of honor of the perfect little mafia Albanian kanun is primarily and above all a collection of manners, customs, traditions, rules passed on orally from generation to generation. The kanun of Lekë Dukagjini has no place in practical life, it must and is moreover more or less developed only from a folkloric, patrimonial point of view. It is part of a past cultural heritage that once ruled the daily life of Albanian mountaineers.