“You Say You’ll Change the Constitution” –The ICJ and Non-state Entities in the Kosovo Advisory Opinion

Abstract

One can easily imagine on 22 July 2010 in the Great Hall of the International Court of Justice the ten judges of the majority congratulating themselves for the shrewdness they deployed in the Advisory Opinion on the Unilateral Declaration of Independence with respect to Kosovo. Disregarding the will of the General Assembly, which had intentionally chosen the ample formulation accordance with international law, the Court narrowed the purpose of the request to the issue whether the UDI had violated any rule of international law, which for the Court was equivalent to asking whether the UDI was prohibited by international law. The Court may well have future opportunities to repeal or correct some incongruent consequences of its arguments relating to UDI and general international law. It will, however, be more difficult to repair the damage it has done with regard to the lex specialis of UN law. Keywords:international law; UN law; Unilateral Declarationof Independence (UDI)