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Recognizing Kosovo’s independence: Remedial secession or earned sovereignty?

Bolton, Grace and Visoka, Gëzim (2010) Recognizing Kosovo’s independence: Remedial secession or earned sovereignty? SEESOX Occasion Paper No. 11/10. (Paper No. 11/10). Oxford University, Oxford, UK.

Abstract
This paper examines the main justifications for recognising Kosovo’s ndependence: ‘remedial secession’ and ‘earned sovereignty’. Our paper begins by examining the applicability of the doctrine of remedial secession to Kosovo, the justifications for which can be seen clearly in the decade from 1989 to 1999. However, we argue that the doctrine of remedial secession was insufficiently ripe, in political and legal terms, to be used in 1999 to support Kosovo’s independence. An opposing approach is that of ‘earned sovereignty’ which aims to provide for the managed devolution of sovereign authority and functions from a state to a sub-state entity, resulting either in independence or rehabilitated autonomy within the host state. Based on the case of Kosovo, we propose an alternative explanation to this observed path towards recognisable’ statehood: ‘remedial sovereignty’ whereby a people realise statehood by invoking remedial secession and undergoing a transitional period of mediated international administration, characterized by elements of sovereignty which are externally designed and internally earned. Therefore, we propose ‘remedial sovereignty’ as a useful paradigm to provide the international community with a framework to confer statehood on those peoples for whom there is no other choice, thereby resolving the ‘recognition dilemma’ experienced in the aftermath of the Kosovo’s declaration of independence.
Metadata
Item Type:Working Paper (No. 11/10)
Refereed:Yes
Uncontrolled Keywords:secession; remedial secession; Kosovo; independence; earned sovereignty
Subjects:Social Sciences > Political science
DCU Faculties and Centres:Research Initiatives and Centres > Centre for International Studies (CIS)
DCU Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Humanities and Social Science > School of Law and Government
Publisher:Oxford University
Use License:This item is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License. View License
ID Code:17126
Deposited On:10 Jul 2012 08:53 by Gezim Visoka . Last Modified 19 Jul 2018 14:56
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