English - Eulex

II. Executive summary
This report is a compilation of information about the work of the EULEX judges in fulfilling their executive
functions in Kosovo courts over the year 2009, the first year of the Mission’s operations. EULEX judges
represent an integral part of the Justice Component of the European Union Rule of Law Mission in
Kosovo (EULEX). EULEX judges are citizens of European Union Member States or of contributing Third
States (Norway, Switzerland, Turkey, Croatia, the USA and Canada), and are acting judges in their national
capacity.
Currently, there are 31 EULEX judges and 25 EULEX international legal officers deployed with their local
counterparts in all courts of Kosovo. In addition, there are local legal advisors, administrative/language
assistants, and interpreters/translators for Albanian/English and Serbian/English. The support of the local
staff is indispensable for the efficient exercise of the judicial functions of the EULEX judges. EULEX judges
perform their duties throughout Kosovo. EULEX judges’ teams are deployed in all 5 District Courts, the
Supreme Court and the Special Chamber of the Supreme Court.
EULEX judges exercise judicial functions in Kosovo in accordance with the Law on Jurisdiction. The Law
on Jurisdiction provides EULEX judges with primary/exclusive and secondary/subsidiary competences
over a range of criminal proceedings. The extensive range of criminal offences includes inter alia terrorism;
genocide; crimes against humanity; war crimes; organized crime; inciting national, racial, religious or ethnic
hatred, discord or intolerance; murder and aggravated murder; economic crimes. These most serious
crimes, also in the form of attempt, and the various forms of collaboration in the crime are within the
investigation and prosecution competence of the Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo (SPRK) and hence
fall under the jurisdiction of the EULEX judges.
Furthermore, EULEX judges exercise jurisdiction in civil cases. According to Article 5.1 of the Law on
Jurisdiction, EULEX civil judges have the authority to select and take over responsibility for civil cases
within the jurisdiction of the Special Chamber of the Supreme Court of Kosovo on KTA related matters,
cases falling within the jurisdiction of any court of Kosovo concerning appeals against decisions of the
Kosovo Property Claims Commission, and any new or pending property related civil case.
Between 18 December 2008 and 31 March 2009 EULEX judges received 185 criminal cases from UNMIK as it
closed down its judicial activities. These complex criminal cases included criminal procedures in preliminary
and pre-trial investigations, indictments, trials, appeals, extraordinary legal remedies and re-trials. The
charges varied from war crimes against the civilian population and money laundering to organized crime
and commission of terrorism. EULEX judges retained 120 cases from the UNMIK legacy. The remainder of
the criminal cases, in which there were no grounds to establish primary or subsidiary competence of the
EULEX Judges, were referred mainly to competent courts of Kosovo for further proceedings as necessary,
or forwarded to the EULEX prosecutors for consideration.
Processing the case files inherited from UNMIK has been set as a priority for the EULEX judges since they
began to exercise their judicial powers. Section 1 of Part IV of this report focuses on the two major categories
of cases which were received by the EULEX judges - war crimes against the civilian population committed
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