Legal Qualification of the Offense

The current Code of Criminal Procedure in Albania defines the procedural relationships between entities in all stages of the criminal procdure. This code focuses, inter alia, on the guarantee and respect of law and protection of the rights of the defendant in criminal proceedings. It should be noted that the Code of Criminal Procedure provides, inter alia, for the possibility of the court to change, in its final judgment, the legal qualification of the offense previously defined by the prosecution, in the formulation of the charge brought to trial. This action should be accompanied with some procedural guarantees which should provide the defendant real opportunities to effectively exercise the right to defense. A special emphasis in this paper will be given to the analysis on the decision of the court to change the legal qualification of the offense, particularly seen in relation to the rights of the defendant. This paper will also analyse the characteristics of the change to the legal qualification of the offense which will be illustrated with the practice of the European Court of Human Rights. In conclusion the paper will state some conclusions which are the product of the analysis of the doctrine and jurisprudence of the courts referred to in this paper.