The effects of property laws on the process of restitution and compensation in post-communist Albania, under the framework of transitional justice. CONCLUSIONS After studying the effects of the property laws of the restitution and compensation process it turned out that they have had numerous impacts in almost all areas of life. Thus, it was found that the issue of restitution and compensation constitute a cause for transition in Albania. In these terms, this process is interpreted as a slow, fictitious process made for political matters, even as a failed one. Property laws are considered as laws that were used by politics to exploit the situation for such interests and therefore most perceive them as laws that were not intended to repair the legal situation and restore rights, but rather political purposes. The dissatisfaction was largely over the legal measures taken with regard to property rights, noting here the Law 7501/1991 ‘On Land’ as the initiator of the problems that followed. Dissatisfaction with property laws was proved to be great and this was not only expressed by former owners or otherwise legitimate owners, but also by those who did not enjoy this status but who clearly emphasized the effects that this issue has had on the life of former owners and the whole Albanian society. Thus, the effects continue with the conviction created by most of the Albanian citizens that those laws never corrected the situation, but it continued to be vulnerable and it is still a problem nowadays. According to the findings, it is considered a non-transparent, distorted, undemocratic, bureaucratic process, characterized by some ineffective laws, corruption and ambiguity. Regarding the Albanian transition, it turned out that corruption was one of the main causes that prevented Albania from consolidating and overcoming the transition, followed by economic problems and inefficiency of laws. This research shows that if we would have had better laws and better functioning of institutions, the situation would have been different and not so problematic after almost 30 years of democracy. The issues that were most affected were the efficient functioning of competent institutions and relations between citizens, followed by the damage of the economy and obstruction of foreign investment, a major impact in the field of justice, the increase in the Albanian state’s financial bill and the violation of principle of legal certainty. Among the conclusions of this research, is the consideration of the law on legalization as a law that has violated property rights. In the interviews taken, as well as in the conducted survey, followed by reports on this law, it is acknowledged that it violated the former owner’s property rights. The justification has been to regulate the situation caused by the years of migration, but it has nevertheless brought about a recent damage to former owners, whose rights were set aside in comparison with the rights of those who built illegally on legal property of third parties (former owners). The property issue brought to the citizens all kinds of effects, ranging from discontent, disagreement that resulted to even deeper conflicts between citizens, endless administrative and judicial issues, overload of institutions and inevitable financial effects in the Albanian state. Concerning the drafting of laws, the intention of the Albanian state to use the situation politically brought about the drafting of several laws one after another. Their frequent changes had profoundly affected the resolution of the situation and brought about a lack of clarity and had influenced the weakening of the legal certainty that Albanian citizens had over the laws of their state. This reason is followed by another reason that is the inability of the Albanian state in those years to draft new laws. The issue of restitution and compensation of properties, for the European Union, it represents a failure to meet the criterias of integration. As reflected in the paper, the property issue, by affecting the legal side and almost all areas of life, has been treated as a cause to hinder Albania’s path to European Union integration. This comes not only because property rights are one of the main human rights issues, but because their effects are so great that it is understood that 25