Commercial Justice Activity

Commercial Justice is a seven-year activity that works to strengthen Kosovo’s business operating environment by promoting contract enforcement and commercial law reform. The activity strengthens Kosovo’s capacity to resolve commercial disputes, enforce judgements, and improve the public’s legal literacy. By doing so, this activity contributes to USAID’s overall goal of better serving citizens’ needs through accountable and effective governance.

Activities  
 

• Improve court-based commercial dispute resolution processes for businesses through the establishment of a Commercial Court and supporting legislative reforms.
• Strengthen debt recovery and contract enforcement methods for citizens and businesses by bolstering the private enforcement sector’s capacity, accountability, transparency, and professionalism.
• Increase reliance on the use of alternative methods for resolving disputes by conducting arbitration awareness outreach to the public and industry professionals; by advocating for the inclusion of mediation clauses in industry contracts; and by enhancing the arbitration literacy of judges and court clerks.
• Enhance the commercial regulatory environment by consolidating the numerous laws and amendments into a unified commercial code.
• Build the general capacity of commercial justice institutions through training opportunities for judges, staff, and business support professionals.

Key Results to Date 

• Reformed core aspects of Kosovo’s justice environment by establishing the first Commercial Court, streamlining the resolution of commercial disputes and business-related administrative cases at both trial and appellate levels. 
• Increased mediated civil cases from 71 cases in Year 1 to 3,801 cases in Year 4, an increase of over 5,000%.
• Provided technical assistance to the Kosovo Judicial Council to fully functionalize the Commercial Court. 
• Completed delivery of the Commercial Law Training Curriculum to train judges, court staff, and legal professionals on core commercial law topics and corruption prevention.
• Launched the Enforcement Management System (EMS) application to improve access to private enforcement agent performance data and provide creditors with a faster method of debt collection and contract enforcement.
• Developed 23 professional working standards for private enforcement agents. 
• Placed 62 interns (82% women) at commercial justice counterpart institutions with program support to gain real-world commercial justice experience.

Additional Information  

PROJECT FUNDING 
U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID/Kosovo) 

PROJECT DURATION 
January 2019 – February 2026

IMPLEMENTING PARTNER
Dexis Consulting Group 

TOTAL FUNDING 
$12,734,338

KEY COUNTERPARTS
Kosovo Ministry of Justice, Kosovo Judicial Council, Commercial Court, Basic Courts, Court of Appeals, Chamber of Private Enforcement Agents, Kosovo Bar Association, Insurers Association of Kosovo, Kosovo Banking Association, American Chamber of Commerce in Kosovo, Kosovo Chamber of Commerce, Innovation Center Kosovo

WHERE WE WORK 
Pristina

CONTACT 
Zana Berisha
Project Management Specialist
USAID/Kosovo
www.usaid.gov/kosovo