Kosovo. Eastern and Western Insights on the Conflict
Kosovo. Eastern and Western Insights on the Conflict

Summary/Abstract: The apparition of new entities on the international scene oftentimes makes us face the methods through which the changes were possible from a legal standpoint. The events in Kosovo, besides the alignment of the great powers for the purpose of bringing the armed conflict to an end, was such that it also placed them on opposite sides when it came to defining and supporting certain points of view referring to sensitive terms. Thus, when there were discussions about sovereignty, a fundamental concept of international law, a political and legal concept for that matter, opinions were divided; a question arose: how far can this sovereignty go? Some hoisted the flag of an intangible sovereignty, an impossible thing. Is it possible to have a humanitarian intervention, beyond sovereignty, without violating the provisions of the Charter? The answer to this question became the object of the argument pertaining to the opposition. In the present case, the situation is much more complex, there also being divided opinions about the legal methods through which the national minorities were seen as subjects of external self-determination. Not even now is the Kosovo dispute clear, as well as the situations in the former Soviet territory, especially in Abkhazia and South Ossetia, the unilateral declaration and the recognition of independence being again expressions of disagreement at an international level. We consider that the practice of international law needs uniformization, in what concerns sensitive matters that lead to territorial modifications.

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