The Kanun is a code of traditional Albanian laws, the first written version of which dates back to the 15th century and which continues to regulate social life in some regions of Albania. Its articles provide for the possibility of exacting bloody vengeance even after numerous generations and with distant degrees of consanguinity, with the result of paralysing whole families, in fear of an imminent vendetta. For this reason mediators frequently intervene, trying to restore peace and defusing longstanding and irrational hatred.