The Role of the Court in the Bankruptcy Process: A Statistical and Comparative Case Study

Teuta Hoxha; Enkeleda Olldashi; Ghassan AL-Thabhawee; Hussein Alkattan; Mostafa Abotaleb

Authors

Teuta Hoxha Faculty of Law and Human Sciences, Mediterranean University, Tirana, Albania https://orcid.org/0009-0008-8498-6378
Enkeleda Olldashi Faculty of Law, University of Tirana, Tirana, Albania https://orcid.org/0009-0006-0267-1053
Ghassan AL-Thabhawee College of Health and Medical Techniques-Kufa, Al-Furat Al-Awsat Technical University, Kufa, Iraq https://orcid.org/0009-0007-9735-6079
Hussein Alkattan Department of System Programming, South Ural State University, Chelyabinsk, Russia; Directorate of Environment in Najaf, Ministry of Environment, Najaf, Iraq https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0281-082X
Mostafa Abotaleb Engineering School of Digital Technologies, Yugra State University, Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3442-6865

Keywords:

Bankruptcy law, Court Role, Judicial Oversight, Insolvency Proceedings, Albania Case Study, Creditors’ Rights, Reorganization, Liquidation, European Union Comparison, Logistic Regression, ANOVA Two-Way, Chi-Square Test

Abstract

This paper explores whether the court-centric model established by Albania's Bankruptcy Law No. 110/2016 attains the expected efficiency, transparency, and creditor protection gains. This research develops the constitutionally imposed role of the courts in initiating, conducting, and completing bankruptcy processes, which is based on policy papers, parliamentary reports, and doctrinal analysis of the bankruptcy law. Utilizing a synthetic, yet real-world consistent dataset of completed cases in Albania and an EU benchmark group, it investigates the impact of court involvement on bankruptcy duration and outcome. Accordingly, this study uses descriptive statistics, two-way ANOVA, chi-square tests, and binary logistic regression to evaluate the interaction effects of country and judicial engagement in terms of case duration and reorganization outcome. It appears from the results that Albanian proceedings are far lengthier than EU cases at each point of the involvement scale, whereas in both systems, high court engagement is consistently associated with reduced duration. Outcome analysis reveals that Albania remains primarily liquidator, while the EU benchmark reaches a considerably higher proportion of reorganizations. The statistical models result in high explanatory power (above 0.82 for R² and Nagelkerke R²) to support the view that the institutional environment and the level of judicial oversight are crucial determinants of efficiency and rescue outcome. The results depict a gap between the formal goals of the 2016 reform and its actual performance, where improvement in judicial capacity, case management, and implementation practices is required for Albania's court-cantered insolvency structure to reach its full potential.