This essay will focus on the debate around Kosovo qualifying as a state under International law. Particular attention will be drawn to the criteria established by the Montevideo convention that sets out characteristics which institutes statehood (Redman 2002, 339). This criterion includes: permanent population, defined territory, government efficiency and the capacity to enter into relations with other states (Dugard 2005, 83-84). Through the analysis of Kosovo’s history one will also begin to understand if it is recognised by other states. Lastly, one will see how this case study contributes to the debate around the nature of international law.
Kosovo is the disputed borderland between Serbia and Albania which has a troubled history due to the “deep-rooted antagonisms between different ethnic groups wanting to claim it” (Bideleux, 1998). In 1912 Serbia and Montenegro took over Kosovo and gained sovereignty over it during which there were more Albanian settlers than they were Serbs (). Many decades later, the 1974 constitution “granted Kosovo autonomy and the status of a federal unit” (). However it was not long until Milosevic, the president of Serbia, revoked Kosovo’s autonomy by initiating security forces on them. This resulted in many disputes, attacks and retaliation within Kosovo which then forced both sides to sign an Interim Agreement for Peace and Self-government in Kosovo (). This was not successful as the six-nation group had hoped to be as Serbia continued its vicious use of force against the Albanians whom occupied Kosovo. 2001 was a significant year as this was when the UNMIK established a framework and allowed for elections and the appointment of a president, although in 2004, “the risk of renewed violent collapse ...
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...e Creation of States in International Law. Oxford: Claredon Press.
• Dugard, J. 2005. International Law – A South African Perspective. Chapter 5 “States” and Chapter 6 “Recognition of governments”.
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• KIPRED. 2007. Kosovo: The Unprecedented State. KIPRED Policy Briefs Series (6).
• International Crisis Group. 2010. “Kosovo Conflict History.” Page no longer available. http://www.crisisgroup.org/en/key-issues/research-resources/conflict-histories/kosovo.aspx
• Okeowo, O. 2008. “Statehood, Effectiveness and the Kosovo Declaration of Independence”. http://www.ssrn.com/abstract=1316445,3.
• Redman, M. 2002. “Should Kosovo be entitled to Statehood?” The Political Quarterly 73: 338-43.
• Weller, M. 2008. “Kosovo’s Final Status”. International Affairs 84:1223-43.
• World Bank. 2011. Last updated July 2012. http://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.POP.TOTL
In 1992 (and with resolutions created earlier) Kosovo's Albanian majority also voted to secede from Serbia and Yugoslavia, hoping to unite with Albania. The conflict in Kosovo could be seen as t...
At the conclusion of the Second World War, the Communist Federal People’s Republic of Yugoslavia was constructed to be a multinational state, c...
Hoare, Marko A. "Bosnia-Herzegovina and International Justice: Past Failures and Future Solutions." East European Politics and Societies 24.191 (2010). SAGE Journals Online. Web. 18 Apr. 2011.
Yugoslavia was fabricated in the year of 1918. Located near the country of Italy, the territory is now broken up into six independent countries. The nation started to fall apart in the late 1980 's, following the World War II victory for the Allies. While some countries can benefit from diversity, there was just too much for Yugoslavia to survive. Yugoslavia as a nation failed because of too much autonomy between the six nations that came to be, too many different cultures in one nation, and simply a subjugation of overflowing diversity.
Krasner, Stephen D.. Power, the state, and sovereignty: essays on international relations. London: Routledge, 2009. Print.
Zacher, Mark W. “The Territorial Integrity Norm: International Boundaries and the Use of Force.” International Organization. Vol. 55, No. 2 (Spring 2001), 215-250.
The last two decades of the twentieth century gave rise to turbulent times for constituent republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, eventually leading them to split apart. There were a number of damaging aspects of past history and of the political and economic circumstances that contributed to the breakup and eventually caused the situation to snowball into a deadly series of inter-ethnic conflicts. Yugoslavia was reunified at the end of the war when the communist forces of Josip Broz Tito liberated the country. Under Tito, Yugoslavia adopted a relatively liberal form of government in comparison to other East European communist states at the time and experienced a period of relative economic and political stability until Tito’s death in 1980. In addition to internal power struggles following the loss of their longtime leader, Yugoslavia faced an unprecedented economic crisis in the 1980’s. As other communist states began to fall in the late 1980’s and early 1990’s, some former Communist leaders abandoned communism and founded or supported ethno-national parties, blaming the economic suffering on the flaws of communism and other ethnic groups. The ethnic violence that followed would not have been possible without the willingness of politicians from every side to promote ethno-nationalist symbols and myths through media blitzes, which were especially effective due to low levels of education in the former Yugoslavia. Shadows of the events of World War II gave these politicians, especially the Serbs, an opportunity to encourage the discussion and exaggeration of past atrocities later in the century. The ethnic violence in the former Yugoslavia can be traced back to a series of linked damaging factors such as the de...
Gagnon, V. P. (2004). The myth of ethnic war: Serbia and Croatia in the 1990s. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press.
The first element of international law is state practice. There are certain behaviors that are regarded as customs once they are practiced by a substantial amount of states over a prolonged period of time. However, it is important to note that this stand...
States ratify human right treaties to enter into agreements and commit each other to respect, protect and fulfill human rights obligations. However, the adherence to human rights treaties is not ensured by the same principle of reciprocity instead to ensure compliance, collective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms were introduced.8 International organizations and treaty ...
In order to do that, first, the essay will define what understand by “jurisdiction” and the elements of the extraterritorial jurisdiction. Next, it analyses some key decisions and advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice and the European regional system in order to prove that extraterritoriality jurisdiction is already applicable and therefore, if the State fails to guarantee the rights contemplated in the human rights treaties, it incurs in international responsibility. Lastly, the essay will sum up the analysis and make some final remarks.
The rule of law requires compliance by the state with its obligations in International law.
Public International law International law contains of rules and principles, which preside over the relations and communication of nations with each other. International Law that is in most other countries referred to as Public International Law concerns itself only with questions of rights among more than a few nations or nations and the citizens or subjects of other nations. In dissimilarity, Private International Law deals with controversies among confidential persons, natural or juridical, arising out of situations having important association to further than one nation. In current years the line up connecting public and private international law have became more and more doubtful. Issues of private international law may also associate issues of public international law and numerous matters of private international law nave considerable meaning for the international group of people of nations. International Law consists of the basic, classic concepts of law in nationwide legal systems, status, property, responsibility, and tort. It also includes substantive law, procedure, process and remedies. International Law is rooted in receipt by the nation states, which comprise the system. Customary law and conventional law are primary sources of international law. Customary international law results when states trail convinced practices usually and time after time out of an intelligence of legal responsibility. Lately the customary law was codified in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties. Conventional international law derives from international agreements and may obtain any appearance that the constricting parties have the same opinion upon. Agreements may be complete in admiration to any substance except for to the leve...
Von Galhn and Taulbee. 2013. Law Among Nations. An Introduction to Public International Law. Pearson Education.
Before we delve deeper into this topic, it is imperative to properly provide a definition of sovereignty and lay down some foundation on this topic. There are four different definitions of sovereignty – international legal sovereignty, Westphalia sovereignty, domestic sovereignty and interdependence sovereignty. International legal sovereignty deals with “the practices associated with mutual recognition, usually between territorial entities that have formal juridical independence” (Krasner 4). The main definition of sovereignty that this paper will use is the ...