International Legal Aspects of the Reunification of Crimea with Russia in the Context of the Practice of the International Court of Justice

Abstract

The article addresses, from a sources of law perspective, the problem of legal qualification of Crimean reunification with Russia. Special attention is given to analyzing the International Court of Justice decision on the unilateral secession of Kosovo, including written statements by particular States during the ICJ hearings on this issue. The author argues why referring to the advisory opinion of the ICJ on Kosovo's declaration of independence is not appropriate in the Crimean case, and why the legitimacy of Crimea's reunification with Russia is much higher than the estimated, from the ICJ's point of view, legitimacy of Kosovo's secession.