Markelian Koça is Deputy Chief Judge at the District Court of Durrës, Albania, where he was born on January the 5th 1972. Graduated on June 1994 at the Faculty of Law, at Tirana University, on April 1995 he was nominated by the High Council Of Justice Assistant Judge at the Durrës District Court and, on May 2000, he became Judge at the District Court of Durrës, Albania. During his work experience over the years he dealt with all kinds of cases. Mr. Koça has been part of the Criminal Chamber at the Durrës Court (2000-2006) and then was in charge of dealing with civil cases as part of the Civil Chamber (both civil, administrative and family cases).From 2008 he has been serving as ad hoc Judge at the European Court of Human Right, for which he dealt with 5 cases (civil and criminal). In January 2019, he was elected Deputy Chief Judge by the General Meeting of the Judges of the Durrës Court

A short presentation will include an overview of the Law on Mediation from the court’s perspective and in comparation with the articles of the Civil Procedure Code in Albania which provide the obligation of the court in general in offering the parties (specially in civil cases) the opportunity and the possibility of recurring to mediation. Mr. Koça will describe the relatively short but very positive and efficient experience that the Court of Durres had in the past (2009-2013) on the mediation with the financial support of the World Bank’s Project (IFC). Also, more importantly, the intervention will present the new challenges faced today in the efforts on making mediation an important, alternative and efficient way of solving judicial cases and finding ways of improving the referral mechanism to mediation office by enhancing the judges’ motivations to do so. Mr Koça will try to explain some of the difficulties and procedural provisions that may cause the parties not to prefer recurring to mediation as a way to deal with cases (for example the new procedural provisions on the reasonable length of the trials. Finding the ways in Albania of presenting the mediation as an effective way of solving the cases in a short time and economic way will be a very interesting challenges for the judges at the district courts.