The Law and Politics of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

ISBN-13: 9780198717515 / Angielski / Twarda / 2015 / 384 str.

Marko Milanovic; Michael Wood

Opis

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.

Recenzje

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

O autorze

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).