Best Interest of Child Assessment and Spouse Violence Towards Other Partner in Determent of Parental Custody from the Court in Albania

This article aims to identify if the spouse violence is considered as an influencing factor by the court while taking the decision determining the parental custody after the divorce in Albania. The importance of this article lies on the fact that it may serve to unify the work practice of judges related evaluation of the parental custody, based on best interest of child principle. Through qualitative method have been completed 12 semi-structured interviews with 4 judges (from the family section) on three different district courts of Albania (Tirana, Durres and Vlora). According to the findings resulted that judges mostly consider spouse violence as a separate issue which do not necessarily influence in determining parental custody of the child after divorce. Judges believe that domestic violence is a different issue and should be treated by the penal law while parental custody is treated by the family law. In conclusion, the research highlights that spouse violence committed from one partner to the other is not considered a constitutive element on evaluation parental custody because of a gap in the legal framework. Each parent can have the custody of child dispute abusing towards other parent. Theory suggests that spouse violence mast be a determinant factor of evaluation and final court decision of parental custody. It is recommended to create a special law related best interest of child that will contain all factors including spouse violence, in order to help judges to evaluate and take the right decisions on determine parental custody after the divorce.