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Kosovo and intersecting legal regimes: An interdisciplinary analysis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 July 2017

ALEXANDER ORAKHELASHVILI
ALEXANDER ORAKHELASHVILI*
Affiliation:
School of Law, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2TT, England
*
*Email: [email protected]
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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.

Keywords

Kosovopolitical realismreciprocityrevisionismunilateralism
Type
Special Issue: Independence in a World of Intersecting Legal and Political Regimes
Information
Global Constitutionalism , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , July 2017 , pp. 237 - 264
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2017 

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References

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4 Ibid 13.

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

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