International Court of Justice Advisory Opinion On Kosovo's Declaration of Independence - Background

Background

The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was adopted on 17 February 2008 in a meeting of the Assembly of Kosovo. It was the second declaration of independence by Kosovo's ethnic-Albanian political institutions, the first having been proclaimed on 7 September 1990.

Serbia decided to seek international validation and support for its stance that the declaration of independence was illegal at the International Court of Justice.

Whether the declaration was in fact an official act of the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government was unclear; in the end, the Court determined it was issued by "representatives of the people of Kosovo" acting outside the normal Provisional Institutions of Self-Government. This was significant, since the Serbian argument was that the Kosovo Provisional Institutions of Self-Government had exceeded the authority given to them by the Constitutional Framework (promulgated by UNMIK). In September 2012, international supervision ended, and Kosovo became responsible for its own governance.

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