Luan Omari

Luan Omari was born on 10 June 1925. The Academy of Sciences of Albania gives his birthplace as Tirana, while some Albanian outlets name Gjirokastër, the city his family came from.

His father, Bahri Omari (1889 to 1945), was a publicist and politician who edited the Boston-based Albanian newspaper Dielli, served in parliament in the early 1920s and went into exile in Italy after the fall of Fan Noli's government in 1924. His mother, Fahrije Omari, born Hoxha, was a sister of Enver Hoxha, the future communist leader of Albania.

Omari did his early schooling in Bari, Italy, during the family's exile and completed his secondary diploma at a gymnasium in Tirana. During the Second World War he took part in the anti-fascist National Liberation War.

After the war Omari studied law abroad, first at the University of Belgrade and then at Sofia University in Bulgaria, where he graduated in legal sciences. He returned to Albania as one of the best-trained jurists of his generation.

By 1954 Omari headed the Higher Juridical Institute in Tirana, where he was a docent of public law. When the State University of Tirana was founded in 1957 and the institute became its Faculty of Law, he served as dean until 1974. He taught the theory of state and law and public law for decades.

In the 1970s he lectured at the University of Prishtina, part of the earliest academic cooperation between Albania and Kosovo.

In 1972 he was a founding member of the Academy of Sciences of Albania and became its scientific secretary, working alongside president Aleks Buda and vice-president Kol Popa. He later served as the Academy's vice-president.

After 1990 he took part in all the constitutional processes and debates that produced Albania's post-communist constitutional laws and constitution, and represented Albania on the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe. With his friend Arben Puto he helped found the Albanian Helsinki Committee. In 2009 he was reported elected president of AIESEE, the International Association of South-East European Studies.

Omari wrote dozens of studies and monographs. Works singled out by colleagues include:

• Revolucioni popullor në Shqipëri dhe pushteti politik
• Histori e Shqipërisë (co-author)
• Parime dhe institucione të së drejtës publike
• Histori e shtetit dhe e së drejtës në Shqipëri (co-author)
• Sistemi parlamentar
• Shteti i së drejtës
• Çështja e pakicave kombëtare dhe Shqipëria
• Për Kosovën e djeshme dhe të sotme
• Çështje juridike e shoqërore
• Universiteti Shtetëror i Tiranës 1957 to 1967 (co-editor with Stefanaq Pollo and Bardhyl Golemi)

Omari married Donika Omari, a translator and literary editor who worked for many years at the Naim Frashëri publishing house, where she later headed the foreign literature desk. The couple met when he was a lecturer and she a student at the Higher Pedagogical Institute. Their daughter, Anila Omari, is a linguist; she accepted his state decoration on his behalf in 2020 and spoke about him at his 101st birthday ceremony in 2026.

The family carried a painful history: his father Bahri Omari was executed in April 1945 after a trial by the communist Special Court, under the regime of Enver Hoxha, his wife's brother and Luan's uncle. Donika Omari later recalled that her mother-in-law mourned the day of the execution for the rest of her life.

He withdrew from public life around 2015, according to his daughter, though he continued to follow constitutional questions closely.

Omari was known as a defender of constitutionalism and the rule of law. In 2006 he argued publicly that a proposal to strip members of parliament of immunity by a simple vote conflicted with the Constitution, warning that if the Constitution were violated the rule of law would come to an end. His daughter said in 2020 that the Constitution remained one of his chief preoccupations, and colleagues described him as committed to democratic values and human rights.

• Career award of the Academy of Sciences of Albania (the Academy's obituary dates it to 2016; it was presented at the June 2019 ceremony for the 2018 national science prizes)
• Gjergj Kastrioti Skënderbeu decoration, awarded by President Ilir Meta on 10 June 2020, his 95th birthday
• Golden Star of the Veteran of the National Liberation War, awarded at his 101st birthday ceremony in June 2026
• A scientific conference, The State and Law in the Work of Academician Luan Omari, held by the Academy for his centenary in June 2025

Colleagues described Omari as one of the founders of the Albanian school of law, a professor who trained whole generations of jurists and academics now holding senior posts in Albania's legal and academic life. Ksenofon Krisafi, a former student and later president of the Albanian Academy of Arts and Sciences, called him and Arben Puto colossi of Albanian legal doctrine. Academy president Skënder Gjinushi called him one of the fathers of the Academy and a name future generations would be proud of. He was the first Albanian academician to live past 100.

Albanian broadcasters covered Omari's later honours extensively, including Report TV, Ora News, Top Channel, ABC News Albania and News24. The Academy of Sciences published the full recording of its 2025 centenary conference on his work, and RTV Klan's archive holds his 2006 comments on parliamentary immunity.

The Academy of Sciences of Albania announced that Luan Omari died on 29 October 2026, aged 101. The cause of death was not made public. The Academy scheduled honours for 30 October 2026 at its headquarters in Tirana: a solemn session in the Aleks Buda hall at 10:00, public homage from 11:00 to 13:00, and a farewell address by Academy president Skënder Gjinushi at 13:00.