Religious Entities and International Legal Personality. The Case of the Sovereign State of the Bektashi Order

Abstract

The announcement by the Prime Minister of Albanian of the imminent creation of an independent State for the Bektashi Order in Tirana, poses a legal challenge, both for international law and for domestic law, in this case Albanian law, both in the field of Albanian constitutional law and the ecclesiastical law. In our work, we aim to clarify the legal possibilities that the described situation offers. To this end, after describing the Muslim Bektashi Order and the relevant Albanian constitutional norms on the matter, we present the legal challenges and difficulties that arise, such as the legal nature of the agreement between the Albanian State and the Bektashi Order in order to ensure the international legal personality, and the possible legal status of the Bektashi Order internationally, through a review of historical examples of religious entities with international legal personality, such as, among others, the Vatican and the Order of Malta.