IAFL meets in Tirana, 15-16 October

The International Academy of Family Lawyers meets in Tirana, Albania on Thursday 15 and Friday 16 October 2026, at Room 202, Faculty of Law, University of Tirana, Rruga Milto Tutulani.

IAFL meetings are open to Fellows from all chapters and their guests, with certain hosted conferences open more broadly to family law professionals. Practitioners who are not Fellows should check the registration policy before booking.

Why an Australian family lawyer should care about a meeting in Albania

Cross-border family law is no longer a specialist niche practised by a handful of firms in Sydney and Melbourne. Australian family practitioners now routinely encounter Hague Convention applications, foreign property held in jurisdictions with unfamiliar matrimonial property regimes, enforcement of Australian orders abroad, and parenting disputes where one parent holds a passport that changes everything about the risk assessment.

The doctrinal work in those matters is only half the difficulty. The other half is knowing a competent practitioner in the relevant jurisdiction who will answer an email within a week. That network is what an academy exists to maintain, and it is not built remotely.

Practitioners already travelling to Europe in early October should note that the European Criminal Bar Association holds its autumn conference in Tirana on 2 and 3 October, with Professor Margaret Satterthwaite, UN Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, as keynote. Different body, different discipline, same city, a fortnight apart.

Details

• When: Thursday 15 – Friday 16 October 2026

• Where: Room 202, Faculty of Law, University of Tirana, Rruga Milto Tutulani, Tirana, Albania

• Host: International Academy of Family Lawyers

• Registration: Through the IAFL events page; check eligibility

On cost: this is a long way to travel for two days, and practitioners should be honest about whether the trip earns its expense. It does if you already carry cross-border matters, or intend to. It does not if the interest is general. For those in the first category, a functioning international referral network is a practice asset that pays out over decades, and there is no cheaper way to build one than turning up.

More details here: https://www.iafl.com/events/events/albania-15-and-16-october-2026/