Is blood feud legal in Albania?

These blood feuds are part of an ancient Albanian code of justice that obliges murder to be repaid with murder. Many of those involved in the feuds, including children or teenagers born into feuding families, are only safe from retaliation killings inside their homes.

What does Kanun mean in Albanian?

In other words, it can be defined as a ‘constitution’ of a stateless social system. The Albanian Kanun contains several customary concepts that have their origins in pagan beliefs, including in particular the ancestor worship, animism and totemism, which date back long before the period of Lekë Dukagjini.

What is Kanun law?

kanun, Arabic Qānūn, (kanun from Greek kanōn, “rule”), the tabulation of administrative regulations in the Ottoman Empire that supplemented the Sharīʿah (Islamic law) and the discretionary authority of the sultan. In Islamic judicial theory there was no law other than the Sharīʿah.

What does it mean to break Besa?

pledge of honor
Cultural concept and institution An Albanian who says besa once cannot in any way break [his] promise and cannot be unfaithful [to it]. — Mehmed Ferid Pasha, Ottoman-Albanian grand vizier, (1903) Besa is a word in the Albanian language meaning pledge of honor.

Do feuds exist in society today?

Disputes known as blood feuds can span generations, sucking in descendants who had nothing to do with the original insult or murder. Though they have a long history, blood feuds remain potent today, with 68 families in the Shkodra region of northern Albania currently unable to leave their homes because of them.

How many Albanians are in the world?

According to approximate data, around 1 million 400 thousand Albanian citizens currently live and work abroad. The majority, around 70-75 percent, is located in two countries: Greece and Italy; among them, Greece ranks first in the total number of our emigration in the world.

Is kanun legal?

The Kanun is a code of law, attributed to Lekë Dukagjini, a 15th century nobleman known as the Angel Prince, and upheld by the tribes of Northern Albania. These tribes were never completely subdued by the Ottomans; they remained largely Christian and kept the Kanun as their law, orally transferring it for centuries.

Where is the kanun from?

But in northern and central Albania, where an ancient code of conduct known as the kanun still regulates life for a large portion of the population, it can descend into a blood feud spanning generations and forcing entire families into confinement.

What is the BESA Code?

The remarkable assistance afforded the Jews was grounded in Besa, a code of honor, which still today serves as the highest ethical code in the country. Besa literally means “to keep a promise”.

What does Besa mean Albanian?

to keep the promise
BESA is a word in Albanian cultural that is translated as “faith”, that means “to keep the promise” and “word of honor”.

How do feuds end?

A feud may develop into a vicious circle of further killings, retaliation, counterattacks, and all-out warfare that can end in the mutual extinction of both families.

Are blood feuds illegal?

There is dispute over whether the blood feud was legal under Teutonic or Anglo-Saxon law. During the ninth-century reign of Alfred, a feud could lawfully commence only after an attempt was made to exact the price of a life.