The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

Provides a comprehensive understanding of the law and politics of the International Court of Justice's controversial opinion on the legality of Kosovo's declaration of independence
Considers why the question came before the Court in the first place, how political arguments were adapted to legal ones in the context of the pleadings, and what the Court made of this
Demonstrates the role of politics in international adjudication through the case study of the Kosovo Opinion

The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

Description

This volume is an edited collection of essays on various aspects of the 2010 Kosovo Advisory Opinion of the International Court of Justice. The main theme of the book is the interplay between law and politics regarding Kosovo's independence generally and the advisory opinion specifically. How and why did the Court become the battleground in which Kosovo's independence was to be fought out (or not)? How and why did political arguments in favour of Kosovo's independence (e.g. that Kosovo was a unique, sui generis case which set no precedent for other secessionist territories) change in the formal, legal setting of advisory proceedings before the Court? How and why did states supporting either Kosovo or Serbia choose to frame their arguments? How did the Court perceive them? What did the Court want to achieve, and did it succeed in doing so? And how was the opinion received, and what broader implications did it have so far? These are the questions that the book hopes to shed some light on. To do so, the editors assembled a stellar cast of contributors, many of whom acted as counsel or advisors in the case, as well a number of eminent scholars of politics and international relations whose pieces further enrich the book and give it an interdisciplinary angle. The book thus tells the story of the case, places it within its broader political context, and so attempts to advance our understanding of how such cases are initiated, litigated and decided, and what broader purposes they may or may not serve.

The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

1:Editors' Introduction (Marko Milanović and Michael Wood)
Part I: The Advisory Proceedings in Context
2:Explaining Serbia's Decision to Go to the ICJ (James Ker-Lindsay)
3:Arguing the Kosovo Case (Marko Milanović)
4:The Practicalities of Representing a Client in Complex Multiparty Proceedings: The Example of Kosovo (Qudsi Rasheed and Michael Wood)
5:The Settling of a Self-Determination Conflict? Kosovo's Status Process and the 2010 Advisory Opinion of the ICJ (Bernhard Knoll-Tudor)
Part II: The Opinion
6:Questions of Jurisdiction and the Discretion to Decline a Request for an Advisory Opinion (Vladimir Djerić)
7:The Question Question (Daniel Müller)
8:Reflections on the ICJ Advisory Opinion on Kosovo: Interpreting Security Council Resolution 1244 (1999) (Sean Murphy)
9:The UN Secretary-General and the Advisory Opinion (Mathias Forteau)
10:The Sounds of Silence: Making Sense of the Supposed Gaps in the Kosovo Opinion (Marc Weller)
Part III: Reactions and Implications
11:The Court and its Multiple Constituencies: Three Perspectives on the Kosovo Advisory Opinion (André Nollkaemper)
12:The Political Aftermath of the ICJ's Kosovo Opinion (Tatjana Papić)
13:Kosovo - The Questions Not Asked: Self-Determination, Secession, and Recognition (Alain Pellet)
14:Kosovo and the Criteria for Statehood in International Law (James Crawford)
15:Has the Advisory Opinion's Finding that Kosovo's Declaration of Independence was not Contrary to International Law Set an Unfortunate Precedent? (Anne Peters)
Part IV: The Road Ahead
16:Some Implications of the Advisory Opinion for Resolution of the Serbia-Kosovo Conflict (Richard Caplan and Stefan Wolff)
17:Old Problems, Fresh Frameworks: Kosovo, Serbia and the EU - the Virtue of a 'Free Territory' (James Gow)
18:Reflections on the Law and Politics of the Kosovo Case (Harold Hongju Koh)
Bibliography; Index

The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

Author Information

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

Marko Milanovic is Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham School of Law, as well as Vice-President of the European Society of International Law. His first book, Extraterritorial Application of Human Rights Treaties: Law, Principles, and Policy, was published by OUP in 2011.

Sir Michael Wood, KCMG, is a member of the United Nations International Law Commission, and a Senior Fellow of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law, University of Cambridge. He was Legal Adviser to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office between 1999 and 2006. He is the author of, inter alia, The International Law Commission 1999-2009 (with Arnold Pronto).

Contributors:

Richard Caplan (University of Oxford)
James Crawford (International Court of Justice)
Vladimir Djerić
James Gow (Kings College London)
Mathias Forteau (Université Paris Ouest)
James Ker-Lindsay (London School of Economics)
Bernard Knoll-Tudor (Central European University)
Harold Hongju Koh (Yale Law School)
Daniel Muller
Sean Murphy (George Washington University)
André Nollkaemper (University of Amsterdam)
Tatjana Papić (Union University Belgrade)
Alain Pellet (Universite Paris Ouest)
Anne Peters (Universities of Heidelberg and Basel)
Qudsi Rasheed (UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
Marc Weller (University of Cambridge)
Stefan Wolff (University of Birmingham)

The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Edited by Marko Milanovic and Michael Wood

Reviews and Awards

"There are several reasons why this edited volume is a highly recommended contribution. Firstly, it includes chapters written by a select group of contributors - experts in their areas of research and work - who discuss several aspects of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion. Among them there are lawyers, academics and counsels to international courts and tribunals. In addition, the book advances an interdisciplinary perspective which enables a more comprehensive understanding of the issue at hand. Indeed the originality of this volume lies precisely in the significance it places in the development of a better understanding of the complex relationship between law and politics. . . Overall, the book is highly recommended for scholars and researchers interested in Kosovo's status and in the normalisation of its relations with Serbia, as well as for scholars working on other cases of contested statehood and on issues of secession and recognition." - Stella Georgiadou, Europe-Asia Studies