The Kanun (also Gheg Albanian: Kanû/-ja, other names include Albanian: doke, zakon, venom, usull, itifatk, adet, sharte, udhë, rrugë) is a set of Albanian traditional customary laws, which has directed all the aspects of the Albanian tribal society.

For at least the last five centuries and into the present, Albanian customary laws have been kept alive only orally by the tribal elders. The success in preserving them exclusively through oral systems is an indication of ancient origins. Strong pre-Christian motifs mixed with motifs from the Christian era reflect the stratification of the Albanian customary law across various historical ages. The Kanun has held a sacred – although secular – longstanding, unwavering, and unchallenged authority with a cross-religious effectiveness over the Albanians, attributed to an earlier pagan code common to all Albanian tribes. The Albanian Kanun is regarded as a literary monument of interest to Indo-European studies, reflecting many legal practices of great antiquity with precise echoes in law codes of other Indo-European peoples, potentially inherited from the Proto-Indo-European culture.

Throughout history, Albanian customary laws have been changed and supplemented with new norms, in accordance with certain requirements of socio-economic development. Besa and nderi (honour) are of major importance in Albanian customary law as the cornerstone of personal and social conduct.

The first known codification of Albanian oral customary law was published by the Ottoman administration in the 19th century. Several regional Albanian customary laws have been collected and published during the 20th and 21st centuries, including The Kanun of Lekë Dukagjini, The Kanun of Skanderbeg and The Kanun of Labëria. During the years of the communist regime, the Albanian state abolished by law the customary practices. However, their exercise returned after the 1990s as a result of the collapse of state institutions in Albania and in Kosovo. In Albania, in particular, the exercise of customary law was observed especially in matters related to property law.

The term kanun comes from the Greek "κανών" ("canon"), meaning amongst others "pole" or "rule" and was transported from Greek to Arabic and then into early Turkish. The term must have been divulgated during the Ottoman rule. It was so widely used among Albanians that when something was legal it was said to be "kanun", and when not legal, "the kanun doesn't give it". The consuetudinary law was called "kanun". Baroness Von Godin thought it was the Ottomans that gave the name kanun and that the Albanian name Lek (Latin lex) was only later perceived as a proper name attributed to late Medieval nobleman of the Dukagjini family.

Aside from the term kanun other words of Turkish extract were used (usull, itifak, adet, sharte) or in the Albanian periphrase "rrugë" or "udhë" (way or path). In Martanesh and Çermenikë it was known as "kanun", in Toskëria it was known as "The Kanun of the Adet", in Labëria "The sharte of Idriz Suli", in the Bregu district Venomet e Himarës. but in Dibër, Kurbin, Bendë and Tamadhe it was called zakon (from slavonic законъ). According to Çabej, Camaj and Schmidt-Neke, the oldest Albanian word by which the customary law was known was doke, meaning "custom", "usance", "tradition" in Albanian.

The Albanian customary law is among the Albanian literary monuments that are of interest to Indo-European studies, reflecting many legal practices of great antiquity that are shared with law codes followed by other Indo-European peoples, potentially inherited from the Proto-Indo-European culture. It has been pointed out that "The laws governing such matters as hospitality, the rights of the heads of households, marriage, blood-feuds and payment of damages find precise echoes in Vedic India and ancient Greece and Rome".

The stratification of the Albanian oral customary law across the various historical eras is reflected in its powerful pre-Christian motifs mixed with motifs from the Christian era. The Albanian Kanun contains several customary concepts that have their origins in pagan beliefs, including in particular the ancestor worship, animism and totemism, which have been preserved since ancient times. Comparing the Albanian Kanun of the Mountains with the Iliad and the Odyssey, the Japanese scholar Kazuhiko Yamamoto has concluded that the basic ethical concepts of the stateless social structure of the Homeric Age — 'faith', 'honor', 'blood', 'revenge', 'food', and 'guest' — are the same customary concepts of the Albanian tribal society. British anthropologist and writer Edith Durham has suggested that the Albanian Kanun likely dates back to the Bronze Age culture. Others further have conjectured that it may be the continuation of ancient Illyrian tribal laws.