States and Statehood

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Kosovo is a Country, and a Country Means a State, Rules the Court of Justice of the European Union

January 20, 2023

In September 2020, the General Court of the European Union (GCEU) examined whether the 2019 admission of Kosovo as a ‘third country’ to the EU Body of European Regulators for Electronic Communications (BEREC) amounted to recognition by the EU of Kosovo as an independent State. The case was brought by Spain, a non-recogniser of Kosovo, against the Commission, who had decided on the admission of the National Regulatory Authority (NRA) of Kosovo to BEREC. As I reported here in 2020, the GCEU had found that the concept of ‘third country’ within the meaning of the EU law could not be equated with that of ‘third State’. The GCEU found that the “concept of ‘third country’ [had] a broader scope which [went] beyond sovereign States alone, with the result that Kosovo [was] capable of falling within it, without prejudice to the position of the European Union or its Member States as regards the status of Kosovo as an independent State”. (para 36) According to the GCEU, “the provisions…

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Democracy and the (Non)Statehood of Taiwan

November 3, 2022

Introduction Much ink has been spilled on Taiwan’s legal status since the Formosa Question first arose in the 1950s. Yet, after Taiwan gradually emerged as a free democracy through a series of constitutional reforms following the martial-law rule’s end in 1987, the question of Taiwan’s status in international law has been lent a new…

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Membership of INTERPOL

July 28, 2022

The International Criminal Police Organization-INTERPOL (“INTERPOL”) General Assembly is scheduled to meet in India in October 2022 for its 90th ordinary session. On the eve of the opening of the session, the INTERPOL Executive Committee must finalise the agenda for the session. One item that should be on the agenda is membership of INTERPOL. Last year,…

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Setting the Cat amongst Pigeons: Kosovo’s Application for Membership of the Council of Europe

May 17, 2022

Kosovo is one of the few places in Europe not party to the European Convention on Human Rights due to a legacy conflict with Serbia. Kosovo declared independence in 2008 after a bloody war followed by a period of international administration, but this is strongly disputed by Serbia which claims exclusive sovereignty over the entire territory. The conflict…

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Anarchy and Anachronism: An Existential Challenge for International Law

April 1, 2022

The war in Ukraine has opened our eyes to two things that have long been there to be seen.  The post-1945 world order has collapsed into a new world disorder. The utopian dream of inevitable social progress across the human world has revealed itself as an illusion. History has ended, not in improbable optimism but in a sense…

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