http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/world/europe/23kosovo.html
World Court Rules Kosovo Declaration Was Legal
Laura Boushnak/Agence France-Presse
Legal experts said that while the International Court of Justice had ruled that Kosovos declaration of independence was legal, it had avoided saying that the state of Kosovo was legal under international law, a narrow and carefully calibrated compromise that they said could allow both sides to declare victory in a dispute that remains raw even 11 years after the war there.
Political analysts said the advisory opinion, passed in a 10-to-4 vote by the court judges, is likely to spur other countries to recognize Kosovos independence. Of the 192 countries in the United Nations General Assembly, so far only 69, including the United States and a majority of European Union nations, have recognized Kosovo.
Reading the nonbinding opinion, whose political consequences could reverberate far beyond Kosovo, Hisashi Owada, president of the International Court of Justice, said that international law contained no prohibition on declarations of independence and consequently that Kosovos declaration did not violate international law.
Kosovos ethnic Albanian leadership welcomed the courts decision.
This is a great day for Kosovo, and my message to the government of Serbia is, Come and talk to us, Kosovos foreign minister, Skender Hyseni, said after leaving the court, The Associated Press reported.
But Serbia was adamant that it would never recognize what it had previously called a false state, while Russia, one of its staunchest allies, insisted that the courts decision did not provide a legal basis for Kosovos independence.
The Serbian foreign minister, Vuk Jeremic, said the ruling could make separatist movements elsewhere tempted to write declarations of independence.
The State Department said the ruling was a judgment we support, according to The Associated Press. Now it is time for Europe to unite behind a common future.
James Ker-Lindsay, a Balkan expert at the London School of Economics, said the court had trod carefully in weighing the right of a people to self-determination over the right of a sovereign state to territorial integrity, and had decided to sidestep the issue altogether.
It has essentially said that Kosovos legitimacy will be conferred by the countries that recognize it rather than by the court, he said.
Kosovos declaration of independence from Serbia on Feb. 17, 2008, marked the culmination of a showdown between Serbia and the West in which the United States and a majority of European nations said Serbias violent repression of Kosovos majority ethnic Albanians under a former Serbian president, Slobodan Milosevic, had forfeited Serbias right to rule the territory.
Serbia and its ally Russia countered that the declaration of independence by Kosovo was a reckless breach of international law that would inspire separatists everywhere. Last year, the United Nations General Assembly, at Serbias urging, referred Kosovos declaration to the court, based in The Hague. Hearings began in December.
Analysts said that the legal legitimacy conferred on the independence declaration by the court could have profound consequences for global geopolitics by potentially being seized upon by secessionist movements in places as diverse as northern Cyprus, Somaliland, Nagorno-Karabakh, South Ossetia, Abkhazia and Transnistria.
But legal experts stressed that the courts studious avoidance of ruling on the legal status of Kosovo as a state had been calculated to avoid encouraging nationalist movements and left the issue of a territorys independence at the discretion of the countries that chose to recognize it.
The court invariably is very prudent and avoids making political decisions, said Bert Barnhoorn, an expert at the Asser Institute for International Law, a policy organization in The Hague.
The panels judges split almost evenly between countries that have recognized Kosovos independence and those that have not have a history of narrow and conservative judgments.
Major European powers and the United States have been at pains to characterize Kosovo as a special case that should not serve as a precedent for other groups hoping to declare independence. But in hearings last December in The Hague, Spain, Russia and China all of which face secessionist movements in their own borders argued forcefully that Kosovo should remain a part of Serbia. China was so impassioned that it made its first oral pleading to the court since the 1960s.
If the I.C.J. opinion establishes a new principle, an entire process of creating new states would open throughout the world, something that would destabilize many regions of the world, President Boris Tadic of Serbia told the Tanjug news agency before the ruling.
Mr. Milosevic, the former Serbian leader, revoked Kosovos autonomy in 1989 and fiercely repressed ethnic Albanians, who make up most of its population. Some turned to armed rebellion. NATO intervened in 1999 to halt Mr. Milosevics violent response to the rebels. After the war ended, the United Nations administered Kosovo for eight years, during which time it lingered in a legal limbo. After the failure of a negotiated settlement, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence in February 2008.
Marlise Simons contributed reporting from Paris, and Stephen Castle from Brussels
