Plea Bargaining Seminar for Kosovo’s Lawyers

April 2009

Members of the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates attended a plea bargaining seminar organized by the ABA Rule of Law Initiative (ABA ROLI) on November 12.

Sixteen lawyers attended the continuing legal education seminar held in Prishtina featuring panel presentations by Regina Cocco, ABA ROLI legal specialist, and Judge Norbet Koster, criminal judge at the Supreme Court of Kosovo. The panel, which took a comparative look at plea bargaining from common and civil law traditions, discussed reasons for the use of plea bargaining and role of prosecutors in the process.

Rame Gashi, member of the Kosovo Chamber of Advocates’ Executive Board, said that the seminar was important since plea bargaining helps to proceed cases ina timely fashion. “Plea bargaining would help us to be more efficient in court,” said Gashi. 

A round table discussion on how plea bargaining would work in Kosovo followedthe presentation. Participants posed questions and shared real life situations for discussion. ABA ROLI is supporting the development and promotion of a mandatory continuing legal education program for Kosovo attorneys, through the chamber of advocates, as part of the USAID’s Legal Profession DevelopmentInitiative. By the end of the year, the program will be mandatory for chamber members under a new law on the bar. The Kosovo Chamber of Advocates, with ABAROLI support, is adopting measures for providing high quality trainings to its members through the program.

To learn more about our work in Kosovo, contact ABA Rule of Law Initiative at rol@staff.abanet.org.