The Blood Feud between Restorative Justice, Misunderstanding and Misuse

Albania keeps customary traditions, as old as the Roman Law, codified in a book called “Kanun”. Inside this code, there are many legal institutions, among which a particular chapter defined as “Blood Feud”. The legislative body codified in “Kanun”, especially the blood feud, continues to conflict with the state criminal system. According to Weber and Durkheim, blood feud has been considered as the regulatory instrument to keep the public order in the societies where the state and the state institutions were not yet existent. When societies move to the “organic solidarity”, the blood feud is usually limited or completely cancelled. Hereby arises the dilemma that this monograph aims to answer: why in a modern state the institution of blood feud still is pursued, persists, and is equalled with the state justice system.