COVID-19 measures, hard or soft law applied from International Organization and Albania

Abstract

This study goal is to analyze the role of international and national actors such as international organizations and different states, in our case Albania, taking into account the legal application measures or instruments, in order to defeat Covid-19 situation. The whole study relies on the qualitative method of research through the use of the ontological and epistemological approach of interpretation, as one of the most common methods of legal analysis. This research is analytical and conceptual one and surely is based on a methodology, which applies the method of interpretation, the research method in the literature, the comparative method too and refers to a current legal phenomenon such as Covid-19. To further extend, this analyze is developed about the concepts definition of hard law and soft law, surely is related to the mandatory and non-mandatory character of normative acts; as well as the impact that the instruments approved by international organizations and countries like Albania have to face with the defeat against Covid-19. The result of the study is that the character of legal norms defines the way of responding to the pandemic situation, meanwhile the normative character of hard law is not negotiable, soft law measures conceived as non-mandatory have had an impact on the orientation of decision makers towards measures against Covid-19. At the end of the paper we conclude that the soft law measures taken by the organizations have served to orient all the states around the world through this dangerous defeat against Covid-19 situation.