The Buzz in Kosovo: Interview with Taulant Hodaj of Hodaj and Partners

The Buzz in Kosovo: Interview with Taulant Hodaj of Hodaj and Partners

Kosovo
Tools
Typography
  • Smaller Small Medium Big Bigger
  • Default Helvetica Segoe Georgia Times

“Kosovo has attractive legislation for new businesses,” says Taulant Hodaj, Managing Partner at Hodaj and Partners, “which ensures lots of flexibility for foreign investors to come and start operations in our market. But unfortunately, as in the rest of the Balkan region, also in Kosovo, when it comes to the application of these laws in the courts and other institutions, they don’t have a very effective implementation of the applicable laws.”

Hodaj believes that Kosovo’s modern and “business-oriented” laws and regulations are very much in line with EU standards. “In Kosovo everyone, whether foreigner or local investor, can establish and start a company and obtain a business registration certificate within just a few days,” he says. “The labor market is very accessible; we have a cheap workplace, with lots of young people ready to work with very good command of foreign languages, in particular English and German.” In addition, he says, there is no Dividend Tax for corporations; there is only a flat tax of up to 10% on profit. “These factors create a favorable terrain for foreign investors to invest and operate in Kosovo.”

Unfortunately, Hodaj reports, many challenges and difficulties remain, hindering real progress in the country. “Kosovo and the region has gone through many different legal systems in the last 20 years,” he says. “We had socialism/communism until the 90’s, when the legal perspectives and business approaches were completely different, then after 1999 we changed rapidly to Western compliance systems and Western laws, but the mentality of the people remained the same.” In his opinion,the continued existence of “old legal mentalities” makes it difficult for business and legal practitioners to take advantage of the new legislative framework.

In addition, he says, “on the negative side, a new law on notary services is making the work of lawyers in Kosovo harder.” According to Hodaj, the new Notary Law came as the result of “heavy lobbying from notary groups, which have become very powerful and very profitable in a short period of time.” He elaborates: “We didn’t have notaries just until few years ago. Now, on the one hand, notaries can provide a large scale of services, and on the other hand, public authorities require almost every document to be certified or validated by them. They have become very strong, and now, in order to protect their own profession, they are lobbying the Minister of Justice, who proposed the law to the parliament.”

In Hodaj’s opinion there is the little the country’s lawyers can do to fight back at the moment. “We can send submissions, and try to lobby in the parliament as they did, but it is hard to compete with the Ministry of Justice. If the Ministry is not on your side, the chances are weak.” Nonetheless, he reports that the Bar Association is trying to fight the difficulties that the new Notary Law has generated, but currently the issue remains in debate in parliament, so he is unsure whether the Bar’s efforts will succeed or not. 

A new law of contested procedure is also negatively affecting the work of lawyers in Kosovo, Hodaj reports, as it allows all civil matters — including contested, non-contested, family, property, and inheritance proceedings — to be carried out by almost anyone who is 18 years old,  whether or not that person is a lawyer. “This obviously interferes with the work of legal practitioners,” he says. "Our profession is not well protected if anybody can provide legal services without any legal education," he sighs.

When asked what is keeping firms busy nowadays in Kosovo, Hodaj says, commercial law and criminal cases are the sources of most new law firm business at the moment. “We don’t see a lot of M&A transactions, because we are a relatively new country, with new regulations, thus we don’t have huge businesses. Most of the local lawyers are solo practitioners, who provide any kind of legal services: criminal law, commercial law, administrative law, etc. Our firm is also mostly busy with commercial law, M&A, legal due diligence, labour law."