KOSOVO: INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE RULING

[Valin]

Mark Dowe's Journal:

Mark Dowe
7/24/10

IN 2008, the parliament in Kosovo voted to declare independence from Serbia. This unilateral secession was fiercely opposed by Serbia and its close ally Russia, on the grounds that it violated Serbia’s territorial integrity. However, in a non-binding ruling on Thursday, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) at The Hague rejected Serbia’s claim that Kosovo’s declaration was illegal.

Prior to this ruling, and two years after Kosovo declared independence, some 69 countries had given diplomatic recognition to the state of Kosovo. More endorsements are needed. Many UN members are known to have waited for this week’s ruling from the ICJ.

Yet, the verdict contains any number of dangers for a world that has to cope with dozens of failed or failing states. The global community will be wary of clutching Kosovo tighter to its bosom. Any state with a separatist minority would be right to be nervous. What, for instance, does the ruling mean for Spain and the Basque country, for northern Cyprus, Somaliland or South-Ossetia? No wonder that Russia and China have been the most grudging in their support for the Kosovans: both are concerned with national cohesion.

The legal struggle was between those who argued that secession could not be internationally recognised unless it had gained the approval of all the parties to the conflict and the UN. That, in essence, was the Serbian case. The counter-argument was that the Serbs had driven the Kosovo Albanians into independence with genocide-like persecution. The divisions made impossible a single autonomous status.

How far could these arguments be applied by other separatist movements? Plainly, the Basques are not subjected to genocidal policies by the Spanish authorities. No precedent has thus been set for them by the Kosovo judgement.

The court quietly recognised, though, that it cannot reverse a unilateral declaration of independence that has stood the test of time. In so doing it will make other people think......(Snip)