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Kosovo and intersecting legal regimes: An interdisciplinary analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2017

ALEXANDER ORAKHELASHVILI*
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, England

Abstract:

The unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovar authorities in Pristina in 2008 has been the source of various controversies in international affairs. From a legal perspective, Kosovo’s secessionist drive is contrary to the well-established position of international law regarding the territorial integrity of states. From a political perspective, Kosovo’s case exemplifies the political drive to alter the law – a drive that applies to other entities in Kosovo’s position. Both these phenomena are accompanied by the divergent interests held by Kosovars as the ‘local agency’ and by the interests of Serbia and third states (including great powers) that support or oppose Kosovo’s independence. The interdisciplinary nature of this matter is enhanced by the intersection of applicable legal frameworks with competing political interests. The motivating factors – and implications of – great power conduct in this context should be examined through the prism of political realism, which provides an enhanced perspective on the relationship between legal and political factors in all their complexity.

Type
Special Issue: Independence in a World of Intersecting Legal and Political Regimes
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

1 On ‘local agency’ see section I below.

2 K Fierke, Introduction to this Special Issue 2.

3 Ibid 2.

4 Ibid 13.

5 As confirmed in Nicaragua v US (Merits), ICJ, Judgment of 26 August 1986, ICJ Reports (1986) 14, 100–101.

6 Accordance with international law of the unilateral declaration of independence in respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010, ICJ Reports (2010) 403.

7 See in this issue N Cornago, ‘Beyond self-determination: norms contestation, constituent diplomacies and the co-production of sovereignty’, suggesting that: ‘The line of argumentation is ascendant when it sets out from specific interests or the will of the specific actors, such as when the discourse is articulated around the central government concerns, or conversely, elaborated from inside the secessionist movement political strategy.’

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