Abstract
This chapter aims to examine one of the most interesting topics in the contemporary internationalist debate, namely the crisis of effectiveness as the ultimate or sufficient criterion for achieving statehood and territorial sovereignty. Since the 1970s the perception that international law can no longer accept social reality as it is but promotes and imposes standards of justice and common values has become increasingly widespread. More recently, the ensuing discussion between realists and legalists emerged as one of the central topics addressed within the framework of the advisory procedure concerning Kosovo’s declaration of independence. By discussing and critically appraising the normative and practical underpinnings of the crisis of effectiveness, the impact of illegality on State sovereignty, the effects of non-recognition, and the role played by “functional realities” in this field, this essay attempts to explain the continuing centrality of effectiveness and the possibility of reconciling it with the requirements of justice.
Professor of International Law, University of Palermo; Professor of Public Law, University “Nice Sophia Antipolis”.
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Notes
- 1.
For instance, according to Taki (2012), para. 10, “It can be said that the principle of effectiveness no longer plays a decisive role under recent international law, with respect to the formation of States”.
- 2.
Christakis (2006), p. 154.
- 3.
Simpson (2001), p. 537.
- 4.
- 5.
Teson (1988), p. 79.
- 6.
Arendt (1970), p. 52.
- 7.
- 8.
ICJ, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Written Statement of Serbia of 17 April 2009, p. 356. http://www.icj-cij.org/docket/files/141/15642.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2017.
- 9.
Lauterpacht (1947).
- 10.
Ibid., p. 410.
- 11.
Ibid., p. 55.
- 12.
- 13.
See Lagerwall (2016), pp. 46–48.
- 14.
Lauterpacht (1947), p. 420.
- 15.
Geiss (2004), p. 470.
- 16.
Program of the Government of Republic of Kosovo 2008–2011, p. 4. http://www.kryeministri-ks.net/repository/docs/951_PMO_Programi_Qeveritar-ENG.pdf. Accessed 18 Dec 2017.
- 17.
Christakis (1999), p. 317.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
This view, for instance, has traditionally been maintained in the Italian legal doctrine that elaborated a strong reaction to Kelsen’s formalism in the mid-twentieth century: see for instance Quadri (1964), p. 373; Arangio-Ruiz (1975), p. 3 and p. 265; Idem (1990), p. 435; Morelli (1956), p. 518; Giuliano et al. (1991), p. 84.
- 20.
This is the position of Abi-Saab (2006), p. 473. In this perspective, particular significance is to be attached to art. 6 of the 1978 Vienna Convention on Succession of States in Respect to Treaties and art. 3 of the 1983 Convention on Succession of States in Respect of State Property, Archives and Debts, stating that the norms of both conventions are applicable “only to the effects of a succession of States occurring in conformity with international law, and, in particular, the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations” (italics added).
- 21.
Christakis (2006), p. 154.
- 22.
An idea advocated, for instance, by Roth (1999), p. 137. But see Lauterpacht (1947), p. 115, according to whom “popular approval, properly expressed, is deemed to be evidence of the true authority of the government, of the obedience accorded to it, and of its probable permanence and stability”. In short, the requirement of such consent “… may, more accurately, be regarded as insistence on proper evidence of effectiveness”.
- 23.
- 24.
Williams v. Bruffy (1877), 96 US (23 Wallace), 176.
- 25.
Privy Council, Madzimbamuto v. Lardner Burke, Appeal Cases (1969), 645.
- 26.
US Court of Appeals, Autocephalous Greek-Orthodox Church of Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus v. Goldberg and Feldman Fine Arts Inc. (1990), 917 F.2d (7th Circuit 1990), 278.
- 27.
Lauterpacht (1947), p. 8.
- 28.
Ibid.
- 29.
Text reproduced in EJIL (1992) 3, p.185.
- 30.
Oeter (2012), p. 331.
- 31.
Tomuschat (2006), p. 42.
- 32.
ICJ, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, Advisory Opinion of 22 July 2010, ICJ Reports 2010, para. 82.
- 33.
Ibid., para. 79.
- 34.
Ibid., para. 81.
- 35.
In paragraph 78 of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion, the Court also speaks of “questions concerning the lawfulness of declarations of independence under general international law” (italics added).
- 36.
See for instance UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/RES/541 (1983), 18 November 1983, also quoted in para. 81 of the Kosovo Advisory Opinion.
- 37.
Jennings (1965), p. 66.
- 38.
On this, see Ago (1970), p. 192 (in particular fn 88).
- 39.
ICJ, Legal Consequences of the Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, Advisory Opinion of 9 July 2004, ICJ Reports 2004, para. 159.
- 40.
Reisman and Pulkowski (2012), para. 29.
- 41.
Weil (1992), p. 316.
- 42.
- 43.
- 44.
- 45.
Frowein (2012), para. 3.
- 46.
Ibid.
- 47.
Ibid.
- 48.
With some notable exceptions: see again Kohen (2006), p. 13.
- 49.
Peters (2010), p. 176.
- 50.
Frowein (2012), para. 8.
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
For a wider analysis of this doctrine, see Tancredi (2006), p. 201.
- 53.
ICJ, Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), Advisory Opinion of 21 June 1971, ICJ Reports 1971, para. 125.
- 54.
ECtHR, Loizidou v. Turkey, Judgment of 18 December 1996, Reports 1996-VI, para. 45.
- 55.
ECtHR, Cyprus v. Turkey, Judgment of 10 May 2001, Reports 2001-IV, para. 96.
- 56.
Ibid., para. 102. The same statement has been repeated in the subsequent case law, see, for instance ECtHR, Güzelyurtlu and Others v. Cyprus and Turkey, Judgment of 4 April 2017, para. 197 and the judgments mentioned there.
- 57.
ECtHR, Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey, Decision of 1 March 2010, Reports 2010, para. 89.
- 58.
ECtHR, Loizidou v. Turkey, Judgment of 18 December 1996, Reports 1996-VI, paras. 44 and 46.
- 59.
ECtHR, Cyprus v. Turkey, supra fn 55, para. 186.
- 60.
ECtHR, Demopoulos and Others v. Turkey, supra fn 57, para. 127 (“The Court finds that Law no. 67/2005 provides an accessible and effective framework of redress of complaints about interference with the property owned by Greek Cypriots. The applicant property owners in the present cases have not made use of this mechanism and their complaints under Article 1 of Protocol No. 1 must therefore be rejected for non-exhaustion of domestic remedies”). But see also ECtHR, Xenides-Arestis v. Turkey, Judgment of 7 December 2006, para. 37.
- 61.
According to the ECtHR, in fact, it would not be consistent with Turkey’s responsibility under the Convention “... if the adoption by the authorities of the ‘TRNC’ of civil, administrative or criminal law measures, or their application or enforcement within their territory, were to be denied any validity or regarded as having no ‘lawful’ basis in terms of the Convention” (Foka v. Cyprus, Judgment of 24 June 2008, para. 83).
- 62.
Ibid., para. 81.
- 63.
Ibid., para. 84. See also ECtHR: Protopapa v. Turkey, Judgment of 24 February 2009, para. 105; Strati v. Turkey, Judgment of 22 September 2009, para. 87; Olymbiou v. Turkey, Judgment of 27 October 2009, para. 86; Petrakidou v. Turkey, Judgment of 27 May 2010, paras. 71 and 104.
- 64.
ECtHR, Mitrović v. Serbia, Judgment of 21 March 2017, para. 43.
- 65.
Ibid.
- 66.
Radan (2011), p. 524.
- 67.
Talmon (1992), p. 231.
- 68.
House of Lords, Judgment of 18 May 1966, [1967] 1 Appeal Cases 853, 954 (italics added).
- 69.
Court of Appeal, Judgment of 23 May 1977, [1978] Law Reports, Queen’s Bench Division 205, 218.
- 70.
See, for example, United States v. Insurance Cos., 89 U.S. (22 Wall.) 99, 101–103 (1875) (seceding states in Civil War); Thorington v. Smith, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 1, 9–12 (1869) (same); Carl Zeiss Stiftung v. VEB Carl Zeiss Jena, 433 F.2d 686, 699 (2d Cir. 1970), cert. Denied, 403 U.S. 905 (1971) (post-World War II East Germany).
- 71.
Kadic v. Karadzic, 70 F.3d 232, 2nd Cir. (1995), reproduced in ILM 34, pp.1595–1614, at p. 1607.
- 72.
Ibid., p. 1606, citing Ford v. Surget, 97 U.S. (7 Otto) 594, 620 (1878).
- 73.
Texas v. White (1868), 74 U.S. (7 Wallace) 700, 733.
- 74.
- 75.
Hurd (1999), p. 381.
- 76.
Buchanan (2010), p. 81.
- 77.
Supreme Court of Canada (1998) Re Reference by the Governor in Council concerning Certain Questions relating to the Secession of Quebec from Canada, reproduced in ILR 115, pp.535–595, para. 106.
- 78.
Ibid., para. 146.
- 79.
Milano (2006), pp. 192–193.
- 80.
For a wider account, see ibid., pp. 194–195.
- 81.
Cassese (1995), p. 152.
- 82.
Crawford (2006), p. 138.
- 83.
- 84.
Milano (2006), p. 201.
- 85.
See Falk (2012), p. 9, according to whom “... the Kosovo War illustrates the constructive role of legitimacy talk, while the Iraq war exemplifies the dangers”.
- 86.
Tancredi (2008), pp. 44–45.
- 87.
UN Security Council, UN Doc. S/2007/168, 26 March 2007, para. 7.
- 88.
ICJ, Accordance with International Law of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence in Respect of Kosovo, supra fn 32, para. 122.
- 89.
Milano (2006), pp. 202 and 272.
- 90.
Chinkin (2012), p. 221.
- 91.
See, in particular, the statements of Lebanon, UK, Germany, Colombia, and Portugal (Security Council, UN Doc. S/PV.6498, 17 March 2011, pp. 3, 4, 7, 8).
- 92.
Akande (2011).
- 93.
Picone (2011), p. 230.
- 94.
- 95.
Talmon (2011).
- 96.
Catalonia’s former leader urges caution. Financial Times, 8 October 2017, p. 2.
- 97.
Focarelli (2012), pp. 164–165.
- 98.
Ibid.
- 99.
According to Baade (1964), pp. 526–527, “The simplistic slogan, ex iniuria non oritur ius, is hardly a general principle of law recognized by civilized nations. This is so not because a primitive legal system places a higher value on ‘power’ than on ‘right’, but because all sophisticated legal systems acknowledge that the certainty and stability of existing situations and relationships is just as much a moral and an ethical desideratum as it is strict compliance with all requirements of the law”.
- 100.
Lauterpacht (1947), p. 341.
- 101.
ICJ, Legal Consequences for States of the Continued Presence of South Africa in Namibia (South West Africa) notwithstanding Security Council Resolution 276 (1970), supra fn. 53, para. 118.
- 102.
See on this Zappalà (2012), p. 116.
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Tancredi, A. (2018). State Sovereignty: Balancing Effectiveness and Legality/Legitimacy. In: Pisillo Mazzeschi, R., De Sena, P. (eds) Global Justice, Human Rights and the Modernization of International Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-90227-2_2
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